抄録
It has been reported that nutritional management is an important therapeutic strategy since it may improve the results of treatment for all kinds of patient, leading to reduced incidence of infection, shortened hospital stays and savings in medical costs. In recent years, the importance of nutritional management has been emphasized in Japan, and many institutions now have a Nutrition Support Team (NST), our hospital one of them.
In the present study, changes in the nutrient intake and serum albumin (Alb) levels, a nutritional index of protein, were examined after one month of NST intervention in our hospital. Following NST intervention, mean energy and protein levels increased from 24.6±10.5 kcal/kg/day to 30.9±13.3 kcal/kg/day (n=10) and from 0.9±0.3 g/kg/day to 1.2±0.5 g/kg/day (n=10), respectively, both significant increases.
With regard to serum Alb, the mean level was as low as 2.6±0.7 g/dL (n=10) when NST intervention started and the level had not increased even after 1 month of intervention, probably because patients who were in a relatively severe hyponutritional state were included in those subjected to NST intervention. Since it seemed that the extra-vascular pool of Alb was very reduced in these patients and that it was difficult to raise Alb levels within 1 month, we consider that NST intervention should be initiated as early as possible.
