Enteral nutritional therapy of inpatients: clinical and nutritional outcomes

Abstract

Background: Enteral nutritional therapy (ENT) has the principle of maintaining or recovering the nutritional status of individuals who cannot or unable to feed them the oral diet. The aim of this study was to verify the clinical and nutritional outcome of patients on ENT during the period of 1 year. Methods: It is a quantitative, descriptive, retrospective, and documentary research, through the analysis of medical records of all individuals who used ENT for 1 year in a public hospital of Bauru, SP, with evaluation of weight loss, time of ENT’s use, and outcomes such as death and weaning. The collection took place in the adult hospital unit containing 165 hospital beds, including 33 beds of the intensive care unit (ICU), and 132 beds divided into nine clinics (surgical and medical), with reference mainly to trauma, neurosurgery, and neurology. All patients admitted to these wards using ENT were collected. Results: A total of 527 patients were included, and it was observed that the majority of ENT’s indications came from neurological diseases (42.2%), with the onset of the ENT in the intensive care unit with 69.0% due to needs for mechanical ventilation. The mean number of ENT days was 20.4 days. There was a positive correlation between the percentage of weight loss and time of ENT’s use (p <.0001). There was worst outcome and lower weaning rate in the elderly. Conclusions: It has been shown that the longer the time of ENT’s use, the greater the percentage of weight loss of these individuals; malnourished patients present longer time using the therapy, and the elderly presented higher mortality rate.