Even after the recent advances and new
technologies,
prevalence of
malnutrition has remained unchanged over the last two decades in
India. Both overfeeding and underfeeding
affect the outcome of
critically ill patients. Hence the assessment of
nutritional status becomes the important aspect in
critically ill patients and with prolonged ICU stay. The objective of the study was to assess the
nutritional status of
critically ill patients with prolonged ICU stay before intervening with enteral feeds and parenteral feeds. MethodsThis prospective,
observational study was conducted in the Neurosurgical
Intensive Care Unit of a
tertiary care rural hospital in central
India over a period of 6 months after the institutional ethical committee approval. The study included
adult patients admitted for more than 72 hours in the
Intensive Care Unit who were initiated on Ryles
tube feeding. ResutlsAmong 60
patients, 27
patients come under class A of the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) Scale, 24
patients come under the class B. 9
patients came under class C. ConclusionsIncidence of
malnutrition was found to be 60 % as per the of the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) scale. Of these, 40 % of
patients were categorized under class B (mildly malnourished), 15 % of
patients were categorized under class C (moderate
malnutrition).