A Cochrane review of 13 randomized-controlled trials found that pre-operative nutritional optimization through parenteral nutrition decreased overall complications rates following gastrointestinal surgeries, and “immune enhancing” drinks decreased infectious complications including wound infections and abdominal abscesses from 27 to 14%34 The role of albumin and other indicators of nutritional status in the prevention of post-surgical infectious complications is increasingly being studied35. This evidence concerns the gene ALB and abdominal abscess.