Medical Nutrition Therapy for Before and After Surgery

1) How will you benefit from seeing a dietitian?
You will benefit from seeing a dietitian to optimise your nutrition intake to maintain your body function, help with wound healing, prevent complications and infections and speed up recovery after surgery.

2) The objective of the medical nutrition therapy (before & after surgery)
The objective is to help you understand your condition and equip you with the relevant nutrition information to modify your diet to prevent weight loss, muscle breakdown and improve wound healing.

3) What is covered in the session?
During the consultation, the dietitian will perform a detailed nutritional assessment and collect the following information:

• Weight history
• Fat and muscle storage
• Duration of change in appetite and diet
• Reasons why you are not eating well
• Dietary habits, meal pattern and lifestyle

The dietitian will then provide you with advice on:

• How to identify sources of nutrients in the diet that affect
• Optimising calories and protein in your diet
• Meal preparation tips suitable for your recommended diet & fluid texture
• Individualised dietary recommendations
• Amount, type and frequency of nutritional supplement that is most suitable for you if needed

Dietary intake, weight progress, fat and muscle storage will be reviewed regularly and further nutrition recommendations and relevant information will be provided accordingly.

SKH also currently has PEERS (Programme for Enhanced Elderly Recovery in SKH). This programme is to prehabilitate frail, elderly patients so as to improve post-operative outcomes and reduce length of stay in the hospital. Suitable candidates may be enrolled by PEERS team.