Abstract

Purpose
It is a well-established fact that enteral nutrition is the preferred mode when compared with parenteral nu-trition for the purpose of recovery and maintaining nutri-tional status not only in surgical but also in chronic debili-tating patients. Further, this mode of nutrition is essential as it enhances preservation of gut mucosal integrity as well as immunity particularly in such patients. In a pro-spective multicenter clinical trial, we studied the effective-ness and safety of one specific enteral formula 'M'.Methods: We recruited 30 patients who were admitted to three hospitals (two university hospitals and one general hos-pital) in a metropolitan area for either surgery or treatment. The patients were given the enteral formula M at the dose of 25 kcal/kg/day for 7±2 days. Thereafter, we evaluated the performance and nutritional status of each patient by apply-ing subjective global assessment (SGA) scale, Karnofsky per-formance status scale, and stroke specific quality of life (SS-QOL) scale. We also measured the plasma markers spe-cific to nutritional status of such patients. In addition, we also recorded the consequent dose?response clinical symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, abdominal discomfort, bloating, nausea, and vomiting.Results: We found that the SGA scale score did not show significant change compared to the baseline score. However, both the Karnofsky performance status score and the SS-QOL score showed the tendency of improvement com-pared to the baseline score. We also found that there was a decrease in the serum markers used to signify the nutri-tional status of the patients, but this decrease was statisti-cally not significant when compared to the baseline score. Of the 30 patients enrolled for this study, 12 patients showed distinct clinical adverse symptoms. The most commonly ob-served adverse response was abdominal pain, although all other symptoms subsided spontaneously.Conclusion: We conclude that the administration of enteral formula 'M' to both perioperative and chronic debilitating pa-tients hardly elicited serious adverse response. In fact, the formula was significant in preserving the performance status and quality of life of both perioperative and chronic debilitat-ing patients. (JKSPEN 2013;5(2):76-81)

• Keywords: Enteral nutrition, Karnofsky performance sta-tus, Quality of life