Prolonged hospital stay in patient with head and neck cancer: impact of nutritional status and pharyngeal problems

Patients who underwent surgery for head and neck malignant neoplasms loose two important human functions: phonation and swallowing. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of nutritional status and pharyngeal problems in hospital stay in these patients. Fifty-four patients with oral and pharyngolaryngeal carcinomas underwent surgery were prospective studied to determinate predictors of 2 weeks or longer hospital stay. We studied the impact of malnutrition, tumour location, pharyngeal postoperative problems and infections on hospital stay. 53% of the patients unwent surgery had more than two weeks of hospital stay. Postoperative pharyngeal problems was the strongest correlate of prolonged hospital stay (69% of patients) while only 23% of patients had longer stay because of severe infection (sepsis, neunoniae). Malnutrition or tumor location were not risk factors of prolonged hospitalization stay in our study. These findings suggest that swallowing problems are the strongest predictors of long hospital stay in head and neck cancer patients.