ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the influence of early enteral nutrition on the nutritional indices of the burn patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty-seven burn patients were enrolled in the study and were randomly divided into early enteral nutrition (EN) and parenteral nutrition (PN) groups. The body weight, serum levels of prealbumin and transferrin, the incidence of burn sepsis, and the hospital stay days were surveyed respectively and compared between these two groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The percentage of body weight loss in EN group was obviously lower than that in PN group on the 7th and 14th post burn day (PBD) (P < 0.05). The serum contents of prealbumin and transferrin in EN group were significantly higher than that in PN group on the 4th, 8th and 14th PBD (P < 0.05 or 0.01). The incidence of burn sepsis in EN group was lower than that in PN group (5.56% vs 31.58%, P < 0.05). The hospital stay days in EN group were less than that in PN group (40.39 +/- 10.81 d vs 54.89 +/- 11.26 d, P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Early enteral nutrition is beneficial to the improving of nutrition state of the burn patients, and to the reduction of the incidence of burn sepsis and the hospitalization time.</p>