Prescription and Delivery of Enteral Nutrition for ICU Patients: A Case Study of a Hospital in the Interior of Brazil

Abstract

Background: The objective of the present study was to evaluate during one year the total delivery of volume, calories, and proteins and compare them with the total prescribed to ICU patients using ENT (Enteral Nutrition Therapy) exclusively. Methods: Data on the prescribed or infused volume, calories, and protein, as well as their respective needs for each individual, were collected. Anthropometric parameters and age data were also collected from the medical records of 41 patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Results: Prescribed versus infused enteral diet volume was presented in 5 weeks which corresponds to the maximum duration of ICU treatment. Regarding sampling, the majority corresponded to elderly people (>64 years old) and males (63.4%). The total average prescribed was 719.2 mL of enteral diet on an average of 649.7 mL delivered. In addition, there was no significant difference between the prescribed and delivered volume, caloric value, and protein content of the diet only in the last week of hospitalization, which corresponded to the range of 29 - 36 days. Several factors make it difficult to reach the patient’s caloric and protein recommendations. Most of the reasons are not recorded, corresponding to 57.1%, indicating the difficulty of assessing the inadequacy of the prescribed and delivered volume. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first time that a prescription vs. delivery assessment has been carried out for patients in the Brazilian Midwest. In addition, although our research is a difficulty reported worldwide (in most hospitals), we also provide opportunities for how the problem was solved in our case, which may contribute to other cases.