ESPEN 2021 Late Breaking Abstracts

Topic: Critical care

Abstract Submission Identifier: ESPEN21-LB-1943

EFFECT OF ENTERAL NUTRITION WITH EICOSAPENTAENOIC ACIDS FOR PREVENTION OF BEDSORES IN CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASE PATIENTS

K. Ogawa^*, ¹

¹Internal Medicine, FLOWERS AND FOREST TOKYO HOSPITAL, Tokyo, Japan

Rationale: In cases with severely impaired consciousness due to cerebrovascular diseases, patients must go through therapy under hospitalization for several days, and are at risk of bedsores due to long-term bed rest during thrapeutical period. If bedsores could be prevented by feeding an enteral diet enriched with EPA, it can be supposed that this diet therapy might make a contribution to improvement of aspects of clinical care and reduction of clinical costs.

Methods: The study was conducted as a prospective randomized controlled trial. Twenty patients were administrated. Ages ranged from 55 to 85 years of age. The breakdown of the patients was cerebrovascular infarction. Patients showing critically impaired consciousness with GCS scores of 12 or less for whom four or more days of bed rest had been prescribed were randomly allocated into two groups: one to be given the enteral diet enriched with EPA, and the other to be fed with an isonitrogenous and isocaloric control diet. All patients were evaluated regarding the incidence frequency of bedsores based on DESIGN-R.

Results:  Investigation on changes in CRP, an inflammatory index, showed more significant suppression of inflammation in the EPA enriched diet group when compared to the control group. Regarding new occurrence of bedsores, no lesion was observed in the EPA enriched diet group, showing apparently lower incidence of bedsores compared to the control group, in which one new lesion on day 4, one new lesion on day 7 and one new lesion on day 14 were observed.

Conclusion: It was considered that nutritional management of our study showed that EPA enriched enteral diets suppressed inflammation and improved low nutrition and using EPA enriched enteral diets could be a useful option for prevention of bedsores in patients who need long-term immobile bed rest. This nutritional management clarified that a proper choice of enteral diet makes it possible to save hours of clinical care and medical costs due to prevention of bedsores.

References: Matsui Y, et al. Development of the DESIGN-R with an observational study: an absolute evaluation tool for monitoring pressure ulcer wound healing. Wound Repair Regen 2011; 19: 309-15.

Disclosure of Interest: None Declared

Keywords: bedsore, EPA