Nutritional support in the critical ill patient: Requirements, prescription and adherence

Introduction: In critically ill patients, nutritional support is a challenge in terms of both estimating their requirements and ensuring adherence to the prescribed treatment.

Objective: To assess the association between requirements, prescription and adherence to energy and protein supplementation based on the phase of disease in critically ill patients.

Sample and methods: We conducted a prospective, observational and analytical study in patients aged 0-18 years admitted to the paediatric intensive or intermediate care unit in 2020-2021. We collected data on demographic and anthropometric characteristics and the phase of disease (acute phase [AP] vs. non-acute phase [nAP]), in addition to prescribing (P) (indication of nutritional support), basal metabolic rate (BMR, Schofield equation), adherence to nutritional support (A) and protein requirements (R), and calculated the following ratios: P/BMR, P/R, A/BMR, A/R, and A/P.

Results: The sample included 131 participants with a median age of 16 (4.5) months, of who 128 (97.7%) had comorbidities and 13 (9.9%) were in the AP. Comparing the phases of disease (AP vs. nAP), the median values for energy supplementation were P/BMR, 0.5 (IQR, 0.1-1.4) vs. 1.3 (IQR, 0.9-1.8) (P = 0.0054); A/BMR, 0.4 (IQR, 0-0.6) vs. 1.2 (IQR, 0.8-1.7) (P = 0.0005); A/P, 0.7 (IQR, 0-0.9) vs. 1 (IQR, 0.8-1) (P = 0.002), and for protein were P/R, 0.7 (IQR, 0-1.1) vs. 1.2 (0.9-1.6) (P = 0.0009); A/R 0.3 (IQR, 0-0.6) vs. 1.1 (IQR, 0.8-1.5) (P = 0.0002); A/P 0.7 (IQR, 0-1) vs. 1(IQR, 0.8-1) (P = 0.002). We found AP/nAP ratios greater than 110% for energy in the P/BMR (4 patients [30.8%]/72 patients [61%]; P = 0.007), A/BMR (3 [23%]/63 [53.4%]; P = 0.009) and A/P (1 [7%]/3 [2.5%]; P = 0.007). As for protein, more than 1.5 g/kg/day was prescribed in 3 patients (23.1%) in the AP and 71 (60.1%) in the nAP. We found adherence to the prescribed intake in 2 (15.4%) patients in the AP and 66 (56%) in the nAP. We found a correlation coefficient of 0.6 between the energy P/R and the protein P/R. Prescribed support was discontinued in 7 patients (53.8%) in the AP and 31 (26.3%) in the nAP (P = 0.002).

Conclusions: The proportion of adherence to prescribed nutritional support was high in patients in the nAP of the disease. Overfeeding was frequent, more so in the nAP. We identified difficulties in adhering to prescribed support, chief of which was the discontinuation of feeding.