Postoperative fatigue and changes in nutritional status.

Subjective feeling of fatigue was quantified before and 10, 20 and 30 days after elective uncomplicated abdominal surgery in 36 otherwise healthy patients, using a constructed fatigue scale model. One third of the patients had a remarkable increase in fatigue which continued throughout the first postoperative month. The fatigued patients showed a more pronounced postoperative loss in weight (P less than 0.001), triceps skinfold caliper (P less than 0.001) and arm muscle circumference (n.s.) and had lower levels in serum transferrin (P less than 0.02). No correlation was found between postoperative fatigue and postoperative changes in blood haemoglobin, lymphocyte count, plasma albumin, electrolytes and various minerals. Development of late postoperative fatigue was unpredictable from pre-operative nutritional status, serum transferrin, albumin, electrolytes, haemoglobin, lymphocyte count and various minerals, as well as from age, sex and duration of surgery. These results suggest future therapeutic measures against the postoperative fatigue syndrome.