American Board of Surgery Qualifying Exam (ABS QE) Practice Test

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What date is an indicator for assessing nutritional status after surgery?

Albumin levels
Prealbumin levels
Transferrin levels
All of the above

The correct answer is: Albumin levels

Evaluating nutritional status after surgery is crucial for patient recovery and can impact healing and complication rates. Albumin levels serve as a significant indicator in this context because albumin is a protein produced by the liver, and its levels can reflect the patient's nutritional state, particularly over a longer-term period, as it has a half-life of about 20 days. Low albumin levels can indicate malnutrition or a chronic inflammatory state, making it a reliable marker in assessing nutritional status after surgery. While prealbumin and transferrin levels are also used in nutritional assessments, they serve slightly different purposes. Prealbumin has a shorter half-life (about 2-3 days), making it more responsive to changes in nutritional intake over a shorter duration, which might not provide an accurate reflection of a patient's nutritional status weeks after surgery. Transferrin levels can indicate iron status but are not as commonly used as standalone indicators of overall nutritional status. Thus, relying on albumin levels provides a foundational assessment of a patient's nutritional status following surgical procedures, which is why it is prominent among the options listed.