Abstract

Author(s): Fialho do Carmo Martins, Renatha Cristina; Coura Vital, Wendel; Ferreira do Amaral, Joana; Pinheiro Volp, Ana Carolina

Introduction: Patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) are more prone to caloric-protein losses during their stay, which significantly impairs recovery and consequently delays in hospital discharge, as well as an increase in the mortality rate. For this, the literature has several methods and tools for assessing nutritional status to identify patients at nutritional or malnourished risk.

Objective: To evaluate the nutritional profile of individuals hospitalized in an intensive care unit based on objective and subjective methods. Methodology: A cross-sectional study with 328 patients admitted to the ICU. To evaluate the nutritional status, we obtained anthropometric objectives such as body mass index (BMI), tricipital skinfold (DCT), arm circumference (CB) and arm muscle (CMB) and subjective data such as global subjective assessment (ANSG), Nutritional risk assessment 2002 (NRS 2002) and nutritional risk index (NRI).

Results: Of the 328 patients evaluated, 55.5% were males, with a mean age of 61.4 ± 18.8 years. There was a higher frequency of patients over 60 years (62.5%) and patients with cerebrovascular accident (14.3%). In the objective method, it was observed that 46.0% and 65.2% of the patients were eutrophic by BMI and CMB, respectively, and 56.4% and 38.2% were malnourished by DCT and CB. The subjective methods identified a high frequency of nutritional risk and malnutrition by NRS 2002 and IRN. At ANSG, half of the patients were well nourished.

Conclusions: The use of different objective and subjective methods of nutritional assessment are able to identify the nutritional profile of patients hospitalized in ICU, and it is important to apply them concomitantly as it contributes by complementing information to a Better and real nutritional diagnosis, since, for these patients considered critical, there are no methods considered “gold standard” to evaluate nutritional status in an intensive care situatio