Commentary Regarding the Impact of Nutritional Imbalance on Pediatric Surgical Outcome

Over the past several years, a number of reports have been published which evaluate the relationship between nutritional status and clinical outcome using the American College of Surgeons’ Pediatric National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP-P) database. In this issue of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, Robison et al [1], using this database to identify the presence of malnutrition, report a significantly increased incidence of post-operative infection associated with children who were receiving nutritional support, had stunted growth, and/or were hypoalbuminemic prior to surgical intervention.