Comparison between the body mass index and the Controlling Nutritional status to determine the severity in patients with abdominal sepsis.

BACKGROUND

The systemic response of the organism, in defense against the aggressor agent, generates acute catabolic response, which leads to deterioration of the nutritional status.

OBJECTIVE

Compare the usefulness of the body mass index (BMI) and the CONUT scale to determine the severity in abdominal sepsis.

METHODS

Retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study in patients with diagnosis of abdominal sepsis, from April 2016 to February 2017.

RESULTS

We included 153 cases (61 female and 92 male); mean age of 47.44 years, the main organ causing abdominal sepsis was the appendix 43%. Mortality of 15%. An average BMI of 27.31, CONUT score of 5.5, was obtained. The findings, subjected to the Mann-Whitney u test, showed statistical significance when evaluating BMI against SOFA (p = 0.025); no significance was found when evaluating the BMI against APACHE II (p = 0.322), nor against mortality (p = 0.646). Regarding CONUT, significance was found when comparing against APACHE II, SOFA and mortality (p = 0.002, p = 0.001 and p = 0.007, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

The level of malnutrition determined by CONUT is related to the severity determined by APACHE II, SOFA and mortality. BMI is not related to severity by APACHE II or mortality; although it does seem to relate to the severity evaluated by the SOFA scale.