• Tabitha Garwe, Roxie M Albrecht, Julie A Stoner, Stephanie Mitchell, and Prasenjeet Motghare.
• Department of Surgery, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 801 N.E. 13th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA. Electronic address: Tabitha-Garwe@ouhsc.edu.
• Am. J. Surg. 2016 Jul 1; 212 (1): 109-15.

BackgroundElderly patients are at an increased risk of protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) which increases the risk of morbidity/mortality. We evaluated the association between hypoalbuminemia at the time of emergency department (ED) admission and in-hospital complications among geriatric trauma patients.MethodsThis was an ambidirectional cohort study of geriatric (≥55 years) trauma patients treated at a Level I trauma center between May 2013 and March 2014. The exposure of interest was albumin level at ED admission (<3.6 g/dL [PEM] or ≥3.6 g/dL (No PEM)]. The outcome of interest was 30-day incidence of complications.ResultsA total of 130 patients met study eligibility. Of these, 85 (65%) patients were in the PEM group. After adjusting for tube feeding and injury severity score, PEM at admission was associated with a 2-fold increase in the risk of 30-day overall hospital complications (hazard ratio 2.1, 95% confidence interval 1.1 to 3.8).ConclusionSerum albumin level at ED admission, but not prealbumin level, is a significant predictor of in-hospital complications in geriatric trauma patients.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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