Keywords
Abstract
Introduction: Critical illness promotes a hypercatabolic state associated with an intense inflammatory response. It is assumed that these changes contribute to increase energy expenditure and increase protein catabolism. Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the caloric-protein adequacy of enteral nutrition therapy and its impact on the clinical outcome of critically ill patients. Method: This is a prospective longitudinal study carried out with 36 patients admitted in intensive care units. The caloric-protein adequacy was obtained by the percentage ratio from the fourth day of implementation of nutritional therapy. The Shapiro Wilk test was performed to verify the normality of the data and from that, the Mann-Whitney test or the unpaired t-Student test was applied. Logistic regression analysis was performed with estimation of its coefficient. For regression, a confidence interval of 95% and a significance level of 5% were estimated. STATA® software version 14.0 was used in this analysis. Results: When evaluating 36 patients, it was found that survival was lower among individuals who had the lowest percentage of caloric (p=0.010) and protein (p=<0.001) adequacy. It was observed that protein offer had a more significant impact on clinical outcomes, with an increase of 1% in the average protein adequacy, the chances of death decreased by 21%. Conclusion: The lower percentage of calorie-protein adequacy was associated with lower survival of critically ill patients. Furthermore, it was observed that the percentage of protein adequacy was more significantly associated with clinical outcomes in this sample.