Parenteral nutrition (PN) is known to provide therapeutic beneficial improvements in malnourished patients for whom enteral nutrition is not feasible. The objective of this study was to investigate the current clinical characteristics and utilization of PN in Korea.
We analyzed the Health Insurance Review Agency National Inpatients Sample database from 2014 to 2016, which included 13% of all hospitalized patients in Korea. Adult patients aged 20 years or older and receiving premixed multi-chamber bag containing PN were included for this study. Patient characteristics, admission type, primary diagnosis, and hospital demographics were evaluated. SAS version 9.4 was used for data analysis.
From 2014 to 2016, 149,504 patients received premixed PN, with 226,281 PN prescriptions being written. The mean patient age was 65.0 years, and 81,876 patients (54.8%) were male. Premixed 3-chamber bag and 2-chamber bag PN solutions were utilized in 131,808 (88.2%) and 32,033 (21.4%) patients, respectively. The number of patients hospitalized through the emergency department were 70,693 (47.3%), whereas 43,125 patients (28.8%) were administered PN in intensive care units. In the adult PN patients, the highest primary diagnosis was malignant neoplasm of the stomach (8,911, 6.0%), followed by organism unspecified pneumonia (7,008, 4.7%), and gastroenteritis and colitis of unspecified origin (6,381, 4.3%). Overall, 34% of adult PN patients were diagnosed with malignancies, the most common being neoplasm of the stomach (17.7%), neoplasm of bronchus/lung (11.2%), neoplasm of colon (11.1%), and neoplasm of liver/intrahepatic bile ducts (10.0%). PN solutions were most frequently administered in the metropolitan area (55.0%) and in hospitals with more than 1,000 beds (23.6%).
PN was commonly administered in older patients, with primary diagnosis of malignancy in a significant number of cases. This study is the first large-scale description of PN-prescribing patterns in real-world clinical practice in South Korea.
To evaluate the clinical manifestations of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) of parenteral nutrition (PN) use in Korea.
The Korean Adverse Event Reporting System (KAERS) database records in 2015 on PN-treated patients were used. ADRs classified as “certain,” “probable,” and “possible” based on the WHO-Uppsala Monitoring Centre criteria were analyzed.
In total, 21,436 ADRs from 2,346 patients were included for analysis. The mean patient age was 57.1 years and the mean number of ADRs per patient was 9.1. ADRs were reported frequently with amino acids solutions (682 events, 40.8%), followed by combinations products (519 events, 31.1%), and fat emulsions (363 events, 21.7%). The frequent ADRs were gastrointestinal (507 events, 30.3%), skin (343 events, 20.5%), general disorders (239 events, 14.3%), and central/peripheral nervous system disorders (165 events, 9.9%). The common clinical symptoms were nausea (321 events, 19.2%), vomiting (105 events, 6.3%), and vein pain (102 events, 6.1%). Serious ADRs accounted for 220 patients (9.4%) and dyspnea was the most frequent clinical manifestation.
This study analyzed the KAERS data in 2015 from patients treated with PN and revealed gastrointestinal and skin disorders to be the leading ADRs.