Impact of specific enteral regimen on improvements of nutritional status and gastrointestinal problems among traumatized intensive care patients

ABSTRACT

Metabolic alteration following severe trauma cause the body to lose its ability to adopt to starvation. Evidence of that early nutritional support is beneficial. The primary goal of nutritional support for trauma patients is to meet increased energy and protein demands and provide adequate defenses against injury. Hence the effect of using specific balanced enteral nutritional formula on improvement of nutritional status and counteraction of gastrointestinal problem among traumatized patients. The study sample consists of 60 adult male and female patients. They were randomly assigned into either study or control group. Each 30 subject was matched according to age and sex. Subjects of the study group received specific enteral formula in addition to the routine hospital care, while subjects of the control group ones received only routine enteral nutritional feeding in the unit. Two tools were developed by the researcher, the first tool includes demographic information, nutritional assessment data including anthropometric measurements and possible blood tests important in evaluating the nutritional status of the patients. The second tool consists of 4items which reflect gastrointestinal problems as diarrhea, vomiting, constipations, and distention. The study reveal that subjects who received specific enteral, nutritional formula had less GIT problems and there were no statistical significant differences between the two studied groups for almost all study variables except in total protein and calcium. These results generate attention and motivation for further investigation about this topic