The ASER/POQI Statement on Perioperative Nutrition

As vice chair for clinical research at the Stony Brook School of Medicine’s Department of Anesthesiology, Dr. Elliott Bennett-Guerrero draws upon years of experience leading large NIH and privately funded research trials in multiple medical fields. Dr. Elliott Bennett-Guerrero recently coauthored a unilateral statement on the subject of perioperative nutrition.

Entitled “American Society for Enhanced Recovery [ASER] and Perioperative Quality Initiative [POQI] Joint Consensus Statement on Nutrition Screening and Therapy Within a Surgical Enhanced Recovery Pathway,” this authoritative report appeared in the June 2018 issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia. Although malnutrition at all stages of the surgical process is a widely acknowledged predictor of poor postoperative outcomes, the implementation of perioperative nutrition standards within the US healthcare system have been quite limited.

The product of an independent panel of medical experts, the ASER/POQI statement recommends routine preoperative nutrition screening to identify patients who may need to address certain nutritional inadequacies in advance of their surgical procedure. The panel also stressed the importance of resuming the delivery of key nutrients as soon as possible during the post-operative process.