A preoperative low nutritional prognostic index correlates with the incidence of incisional surgical site infections after bowel resection in patients with Crohn's disease.

PURPOSE: The incidence of incisional surgical site infections (SSIs) is reported to be higher among patients with Crohn's disease (CD) than among those with colorectal cancer. It has also been reported that the preoperative nutritional and inflammatory status is associated with the frequency of postoperative complications. Onodera's prognostic nutritional index (OPNI) is a simple and useful parameter for determining the nutritional and inflammatory status. In the present study, we retrospectively investigated the correlation between the OPNI and the incidence of incisional SSI in patients with CD who had undergone bowel resection.

METHODS: A total of 177 CD patients who underwent abdominal surgery were enrolled. Various clinical factors and the OPNI values were evaluated to identify risk factors for incisional SSIs.

RESULTS: The incidence of incisional SSIs was 19.8 %. A multivariate analysis indicated that the OPNI was an independent risk factor for incisional SSIs.

CONCLUSIONS: The results of this retrospective study suggest that the OPNI is an independent risk factor for incisional SSIs in patients with a history of bowel resection for CD.