Team Approach: Nutritional Assessment and Interventions in Elective Hip and Knee Arthroplasty

»: Nutritional assessment is a critical element of routine preoperative assessment and should be approached by an interdisciplinary team that involves the primary care physician, dietitian, and orthopaedist.

»: Patients should be stratified on the basis of their nutritional risk, which influences downstream optimization and deficiency reversal.

»: The scientific literature indicates that nutritional supplementation affords protection against adverse outcomes and helps functional recovery, even among patients who are not at nutritional risk.

»: Published investigations recommend a sufficient preoperative interval (at least 4 weeks) to ensure an adequate nutritional intervention in malnourished patients as opposed to regarding them as nonsurgical candidates.