Abstract:

Objective:The objective of the study is to evaluate the nutritional status of patientswith oral maxillofacial cancer.Methods: The nutritional statuswas evaluated using seven easily determined variables and multi-factor nutritional indexin 50 hospitalized pa- tients with oral maxillofacial cancerfrom 1990 to 1992.Results: Fifty-six percentof patients had protein-energy malnutrition. The high incidence of protein-energy malnutrition was found in those patients without adequate dietary intake.Conclusion: Patients with oral maxillofacial cancer usually have protein-energy malnutrition. The reason is that the patients always have an inadequate dietary intake.

Key words: nutritional status assessment, protein-energy malnutrition, oral maxillofacial cancer