Pancreatic Resection, Malnutrition and Readmission

The Whipple procedure is associated with increased readmission rates for infection,
pancreatic leak, and failure to thrive/malnutrition. The purpose of this study is to develop
an evidence based perioperative nutrition plan to improve patient outcomes. The study has
two specific aims including evaluation of feasibility of implementing an evidence based
perioperative nutritional plan for patients undergoing Whipple and evaluation of impact of a
standard perioperative nutritional plan on primary outcome of readmission rate and secondary
outcomes of readmission cause, length of stay for initial hospitalization and/or
readmission, post surgical complications (surgical site infections, pancreatic leak, sepsis,
delayed gastric emptying), and nutritional status (PG-Subject Generated Assessment scores,
BMI, albumin, pre-albumin, and method of oral intake). Categorical variables including
readmission rate, readmission cause, post-surgical complications and nutritional status will
be compared by chi-square test between intervention and control group. Length of stay for
initial hospitalization and readmission will be compared by non parametric Wilcoxon test
between two groups. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe the sample. There are no
risks to the study participants.