Assessment of Malnutrition and Enteral Feeding Practices in Critically Ill in Neurosurgery ICU in Rural Teaching Hospital

BACKGROUND 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. METHODS This 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. RESULTS Among 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. CONCLUSIONS Incidence 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).