Abstract

Author(s): Rodríguez Bugueiro, Julia; Lacquaniti, Natalia; Merkel, María Cecilia; Villagra, Anabel; Remoli, Rosario; Battistella, Valeria; Gerez, Mariela

Introduction: Knowing the nutritional efficacy is fundamental in the daily task because it allows to know to what extent the desired objective is achieved, which is that the critical patient receives the Kcal that he needs.

Objective: Develop a tool that allows to know if the daily caloric contributions received by the critical patient are sufficient during their hospitalization.

Methods: Observational, prospective, unicentric study. All admissions to the Intensive Care Unit of adults over 18 years of age were recorded consecutively with the start of enteral nutrition in a hospital in the period from August 2012 to June 2015. The nutritional efficacy was measured through the traditional formula: Kilocalories received / Kilocalories prescribed x 100 and with the new tool: (Days of nutritional follow-up - days of insufficient intake) / Days of follow-up x 100.

Results: 425 patients were admitted and 82 were excluded from the analysis. The days of average follow-up during hospitalization were 17.6 ± 9.5. Results of nutritional efficacy The median of the nutritional efficacy measured with the traditional tool was 83% (IIC 74-89). Results of the new tool The median number of days in which patients had sufficient caloric intake was 42.1% (IIC 16.6-63.3).

Discussion: Critical patients present a significant daily caloric deficit, which may be undervalued according to the tool used for its measurement. We have shown that the nutritional efficacy of the total days of hospitalization can be high even when they are not covered with the necessary caloric requirements for the patient during the day.

Conclusions: The new tool provides more detailed information to detect daily caloric deficit, so it could help identify the timely use of complementary parenteral nutrition.