Nutritional characterization in patients hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit

Abstract

Introduction: Patients in intensive care units are likely to present nutritional risk due to difficulties in adapting to the extrauterine environment, diseases associated with prematurity, among other factors.

Objective: To describe the nutritional characteristics of patients hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit of a high complexity hospital.

Methods: Longitudinal descriptive study. We analyze the cohort of premature newborns hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in a high complexity hospital in Colombia. Nutritional classification was based on anthropometric measurements from the interpretation of Fenton curves and review of perinatal history.

Results: 51 patients were studied, mostly female and gestational age between ≥28 and <32 weeks (n=40, 78.43%), with a median length of stay of 41 days (IQR=12). From the nutritional evaluation at admission, an adequate weight for gestational age (percentile ≥10 and <90) was identified in 88.24% of the neonates, with implementation of parenteral nutrition for all patients, evolving to the oral route as a method of intake at discharge. The main digestive disease identified was necrotizing enterocolitis and, like other diseases of interest, severe infection and respiratory distress syndrome stand out.

Conclusions: Based on the nutritional evaluation, nutritional alterations related to weight for gestational age and growth rate in the NICU were identified, which require special attention and intervention, so it is recommended to have a systematic nutritional evaluation and follow-up in patients from admission.