Preoperative Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) Score Predicts Short-term Surgical Outcomes in Patients with Gastric Cancer After Laparoscopy-assisted Radical Gastrectomy
Abstract Background: The Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score is an emerging nutrition assessment tool that is useful in gastric cancer (GC) patients. The aim of our study was to assess the predictive ability of the preoperative CONUT score for short-term outcomes in GC patients undergoing laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 309 patients who underwent curative laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy. The patients were divided into two groups according to the optimal cut-off value of the CONUT score. The clinical characteristics and postoperative complications were evaluated and analysed in the low- and high-score groups. The risk factors for complications were identified by univariate and multivariate analysis.Results: The preoperative CONUT score showed a good predictive ability for postoperative complications (area under the curve (AUC)=0.718, Youden index=0.343) compared with other indexes, with an optimal cut-off value of 2.5. Patients with high CONUT scores had a higher incidence of overall complications (P<0.001) and mild complications (P<0.001). Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that the CONUT score was independently associated with postoperative complications (P=0.012; odds ratio (OR)=2.433; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.218-4.862).Conclusions: The preoperative CONUT score is a reliable and useful nutritional assessment tool for predicting short-term outcomes in GC patients after laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy.