Clinical significance of preoperative oral frailty and malnutrition in predicting the surgical outcomes of Gastrointestinal cancers.

PURPOSE: In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between preoperative oral frailty, nutritional status, and postoperative complications in patients who underwent curative gastrointestinal (GI) cancer surgery.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed 181 patients who underwent curative resection for GI malignancies between April 2022 and March 2024. Oral frailty and nutritional status were assessed using the Oral Frailty Index-8 (OFI-8) and Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) through structured, nurse-administered preoperative questionnaires. Complications were defined as Clavien-Dindo grade ≥ 2. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent risk factors.

RESULTS

Complications occurred in 30.9% of the participants. Participants with both oral frailty (OFI-8 ≥ 4) and a risk of malnutrition (MNA-SF ≤ 11) had the highest complication rate (55.2%). In the multivariate analysis, the combination of these two factors was an independent predictor of postoperative complications (odds ratio: 3.16, p = 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Preoperative oral frailty and malnutrition are significant predictors of postoperative complications in patients with GI cancers. A simple composite score combining OFI-8 and MNA-SF may improve risk stratification and inform multidisciplinary preoperative care strategies to optimize surgical outcomes.