ABSTRACT
As with any medical intervention, there are always risks of complications. Minimizing such risks depends on patient selection and assessment. The first step in designing a nutritional strategy for a patient involves making a systematic evaluation of the patient, and this is termed nutritional assessment. Nutritional assessment identifies malnourished patients that require immediate nutritional support and also identifies patients at risk for developing malnutrition in which nutritional support will help to prevent malnutrition.
