Nutritional therapy (NT), such as enteral nutrition (EN) or parenteral nutrition (PN), is essential for the malnourished patients. Although the complications related to NT has been well described, multicenter data on symptoms in the patients with receiving NT during hospitalization are still lacking.
Nutrition support team (NST) consultations, on which NT-related complications were described, were collected retrospectively for one year. The inclusion criteria were patients who were (1) older than 18 years, (2) hospitalized, and (3) receiving EN or PN at the time of NST consultation. The patients’ demographics (age, sex, body mass index [BMI]), type of NT and type of complication were collected. To compare the severity of each complication, the intensive care unit (ICU) admission, hospital stay, and type of discharge were also collected.
A total of 14,600 NT-related complications were collected from 13,418 cases from 27 hospitals in Korea. The mean age and BMI were 65.4 years and 21.8 kg/m2. The complications according to the type of NT, calorie deficiency (32.4%, n=1,229) and diarrhea (21.6%, n=820) were most common in EN. Similarly, calorie deficiency (56.8%, n=4,030) and GI problem except for diarrhea (8.6%, n=611) were most common in PN. Regarding the clinical outcomes, 18.7% (n=2,158) finally expired, 58.1% (n=7,027) were admitted to ICU, and the mean hospital days after NT-related complication were 31.3 days. Volume overload (odds ratio [OR]=3.48) and renal abnormality (OR=2.50) were closely associated with hospital death; hyperammonemia (OR=3.09) and renal abnormality (OR=2.77) were associated with ICU admission; “micronutrient and vitamin deficiency” (geometric mean [GM]=2.23) and volume overload (GM=1.61) were associated with a longer hospital stay.
NT may induce or be associated with several complications, and some of them may seriously affect the patient’s outcome. NST personnel in each hospital should be aware of each problem during nutritional support.
Nutrition therapy is a critical component of treatment for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome/acute lung injury. Underfeeding can cause cumulative caloric deficits, loss of lean body mass, and deteriorationof respiratory muscle strength, which can all lead to poor outcomes. However, overfeeding, on the other hand, is also harmful due to hypercapnia and hyperglycemia, which can increase the risk of infection. Therefore, an optimal nutrition therapy is very important. Although the importance of nutrition in this patient population is widely accepted, trophic enteral feeding during the acute phase is suggested in immunologic aspect to prevent nutrition-related complications. High-fat and low-carbohydrate enteral nutrition can decrease CO2 production and help shorten the duration of mechanical ventilation in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. There are still areas of controversy regarding the role of omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, which are known to prevent oxidative cellular injury, modify the metabolic response, and modulate immunity and inflammation.