Nutrition Management of Home Parenteral Nutrition Among Patients With Enterocutaneous Fistula in the Sustain Registry.

BACKGROUND: Home parenteral nutrition (HPN) is a vital therapy for patients who have the diagnosis of enterocutaneous fistula (ECF), yet little is known about how these patients are managed. This research compares nutrition management of adults with ECF as the indication for HPN therapy to those with other indications. METHODS: This is an analysis of data from adult HPN patients in the Sustain registry enrolled between August 2011 and February 2014 who have the diagnosis of ECF or other indication for HPN who served as the control group. Differences between the ECF and control group were assessed by t test, analysis of variance, or χ2 as appropriate. RESULTS: There were 141 HPN patients with ECF and 632 control patients. Patients with ECF were older (55 vs 50 years, P < .001), more frequently had a goal for future surgery (30% vs 15%, P = .010), had greater prevalence of overweight/obesity (33% vs 20%, P = .04), and had a lower serum albumin (2.98 ± 0.65 g/dL vs 3.16 ± 0.66 g/dL, P = .006) than controls. The diet order was more frequently nil per os (NPO) in patients with ECF (48% vs 22%, P < .001), and amino acid content of HPN was greater (111.90 ± 29.11 vs 102.06 ± 27.84, P < .001) than in controls. There were no differences in patterns of weight change by ECF or control groups, although underweight patients gained, normal-weight patients maintained, and overweight/obese patients lost weight and serum albumin increased similarly. CONCLUSIONS: The HPN management of patients with ECF is similar to other HPN patients other than greater provision of protein, more frequent NPO status, and a goal for future surgery.

Does rich fiber diet accelerate the healing process of low-output colorectal fistulas?

The occurrence of an anastomotic leakage is a major therapeutic concern in colorectal surgery. Considering the outflow level of the fistula, a defunctioning stoma may be necessary to obtain closure. When the outflow is low and the intestinal transit is not interrupted, a colostomy is not mandatory but the healing process can be long. Here the author presents three consecutive cases of low output fistula treated by feeding with an enriched fiber diet. Closure of the fistulae occurred in a few days. The rationale of this alternative treatment is discussed.

Manejo con nutrición parental total de las fístulas enterocutáneas complicadas / Management of complicate enterocutaneous fistulas with total parenteral nutrition

Objetivo. Presentar nuestra experiencia con Nutrición Parenteral Total (NPT) en pacientes con fístulas enterocutáneas complicadas con sepsis abdominal y abdomen abierto. Sede. Departamento de Cirugía General. Clínica de Apoyo Nutricional. Hospital General Dr. Manuel Gea González. Diseño y análisis estadístico. Estudio prospectivo, de 3 años. Se emplearon media, error estándar de la media (media ñ SEM), homogeneidad de varianza, prueba de Wilcoxon, Chi cuadrada y coeficiente de regresión lineal. Se tomó como significativa p<0.06. Pacientes y métodos. Pacientes adultos con fístulas enterocutáneas complicadas con sepsis abdominal y abdomen abierto. Se utilizaron 3 a 4 g/kg/día de Dextrosa, 0.5 a 1 g/kg/día de lípidos y 0.1 a 0.9 g/kg/día de aminoácidos. Se evlauron gasto de la fístula, albúmina sérica, transferrina sérica, cuental total de linfocitos y cicatrización de la pared abdominal. Resultados. Siete pacientes completaron el estudio. La tasa de cierre espontáneo fue del 57.14 por ciento entre la 4a y la 10a semnas. La mortalidad fue del 28.5 por ciento. La albúmina se elevó de 2.199 ñ 0.2 mg/dl a 3.09 ñ 0.3 mg/dl. La transferrina se llevó de 201 ñ 32.7 a 242 ñ 27.15 mg/dl y la cuenta linfocitaria se incrementó de 1392 ñ 338.22 células/ a 2619 ñ 716 células/mm3. Las complicaciones fueron: colestasis 14.2 por ciento, sepsis por catéter 42.7 por ciento. La cicatrización de la pared abdominal fue en 85.7 por ciento de los casos. Conclusión. La NPT es efectiva para controlar el estado séptico y mejorar el estado nutricional de pacientes con fístulas enterocutáneas complicadas con sepsis abdomianal, favorece el cierre espontáneo y la cicatrización de la pared abdominal

Nutrición en situaciones especiales (Insuficiencia hepática y fistula intestinal) / Nutrition in special situation (Liver failure and intestinal fistula)

Se revisan diferentes causas de enfermedad hepática, sus complicaciones nutricionales, la etiología de la encefalopatia hepática,y se dan sugerencias de como manejar al paciente en insuficiencia hepática desde el punto de vista general y nutricional, haciendo énfasis en el uso de aminoácidos de cadena ramificada. Se discuten los conceptos más importantes, etiología, y principios generales del manejo de las fístulas eterocutáneas

[Status of elemental diets in the therapy of Crohn disease in childhood]. / Stellung von Elementardiäten in der Therapie des Morbus Crohn im Kindesalter.

Since the seventieth low molecular weight formulas, "elemental diets", are applied in acute Crohn's disease in addition to drug therapy. In small bowel involvement, therapeutic efficiency in active disease is as good as salazosulfapyridine combined with corticosteroids. Physiological changes under elemental diet have been reported: decrease of gastric and pancreatic secretion, changes of bacterial bowel flora and in patients with Crohn's disease decreased fecal bile acid excretion and decreased intestinal losses of lymphocytes were described. Further, the absence of allergens in the formula and the quick and complete resorption are discussed to be important to clinical improvement in Crohn's disease. Indications for elemental diet are acute small bowel disease, intestinal obstruction, malnourishment and growth retardation. Further studies are needed to examine if elemental diets are effective in gastrointestinal fistulas and extraintestinal symptoms in Crohn's disease.

[Postoperative high digestive-cutaneous fistula. Advantages of nutritional treatment]. / Fistole digestivo-cutanee alte postoperatorie. Vantaggi del trattamento nutrizionale.

Twenty-four patients (18 male and 6 female) with high post-surgery digestive fistulas (8 pancreatic-cutaneous, 7 duodenal-cutaneous, 4 jejunum-cutaneous, 4 ileal-cutaneous, 1 gastric cutaneous) were treated with T.P.N. and/or E.N. between 1980-1983. 17 patients (71%) recovered with spontaneous healing of fistulas in 9-92 (average 39) days. 3 patients underwent a second operation. 3 patients (12.5%) died: 2 for sepsis, 1 for cachexia. A.E. and T.P.N. were able to improve serious catabolic state and to get a better prognosis.

Nutritional support of the hospitalized patient. Part II. Clinical indications.

The first part of this review dealt with the background, methodology and techniques of nutritional support. As a significant proportion of hospitalized patients suffer from various forms of unrecognized and untreated malnutrition, nutritional support is essential for the maintenance of body mass and function until specific treatment is able to influence the course of disease. The following review highlights various medical and surgical conditions in which nutritional support, in particular total parenteral nutrition, has been advocated in adult patients. Nutritional repletion as a therapeutic modality is still in its infancy, and consequently its true role in patient management is still undergoing evaluation.

[Treatment of gastrointestinal disease with elemental diets (author's transl)]. / Behandlung gastroenterologischer Erkrankungen mit Elementardiäten.

Elemental diets are ballast-free formula diets, which are fully resorbed in the upper jejunum, and which do scarcely stimulate gastric, pancreatic or bile secretion; they contain no antigens, decrease intestinal work load, and do influence most probably the composition of the intestinal bacterial flora in a quantitative as well as qualitative way. Therefore such dietary preparations are used in gastrointestinal diseases. Their indications have not yet been clarified sufficiently by controlled therapeutic trials, however they are used with apparent success, especially in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, in malabsorption syndromes, and in patients with intestinal fistula.

Assessment of the nutritional state of patients with an intestinal fistula.

The arm muscle area, derived fat-free mass, urinary excretion of 3-methylhistidine and creatinine were measured serially in a group of patients with an intestinal fistula receiving prolonged nutritional support. While the two anthropometric tests appeared reasonable indicators of changes in muscle mass in these patients, the marked intra-individual variability in excretion of 3-methylhistidine and creatinine created problems in interpretation. It is suggested that more use be made of serial anthropometry in district general hospitals as an alternative, simple, measure of nutritional status.

Parenteral hyperalimentation in patients with gastrointestinal cancer.

Sixty-six patients with locally advanced or diffuse gastrointestinal cancer or suffering from major complications due to surgery or radiation therapy, were treated with continuous parenteral hyperalimentation at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan for a cumulative period of 2101 study-days. Patients were divided into 4 groups: Group 1, malnourished patients with advanced gastrointestinal malignancy; Group 2, patients with gastrointestinal fistulae due to simple surgical complications or to radiation injury of the bowel; Group 3, patients with major postoperative complications; Group 4, surgical patients with gastric or colo-rectal carcinoma treated preoperatively. Mean infusional regime for the various groups included 42-56 Cal/kg/day and 1.5 to 2.4 g amino acid/kg/day, and the duration of the treatment ranged from 7 to 144 days. The results obtained show that protein calorie depletion of cancer patients may depend on malnutrition and that it can be reversed by parenteral nutrition, in patients, that are candidates for surgical treatment or those who qualify for chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Parenteral nutrition has a fundamental role in patients with fistulae, even if much attention must be paid to the external care of the fistula and the wound. In addition, nutritional support by intravenous feeding has proven essential for a successful outcome of patients with major postoperative complications. Preoperative protein repletion and central venous nutrition in patients who require gastrintestinal surgery represent a modern advance in the field of cancer surgery.

Ten years experience with intravenous hyperalimentation and inflammatory bowel disease.

A retrospective analysis was conducted on 74 patients with inflammatory bowel disease who were treated with intravenous hyperalimentation at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania between the years 1967-1976. Intravenous hyperalimentation can ameliorate the inevitable protein-calorie malnutrition present in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Combined with complete bowel rest, intravenous hyperalimentation can effectively function as the primary treatment or as an adjunct to the surgical management of the complications of inflammatory bowel disease. Intravenous hyperalimentation can be safely administered to these severely ill patients, almost certainly improving survival rates in the patients treated.

[Results of treating the acute stage of Crohn's disease by a dietary regimen (author's transl)]. / Zur Behandlung des Morbus Crohn im akuten Stadium. Ergebnisse einer Diät-Therapie.

23 consecutive patients (13 women, 10 men; mean age 31 years) with acute exacerbation of Crohn's disease were treated by a dietary regimen based on "resting" the bowel by parenteral nutrition or a balanced synthetic diet (Vivasorb), followed by stepwide introduction of a low-residue diet. Cardinal symptoms such as severe abdominal pain, diarrhoea, incomplete ileus or weight loss responded favourably to treatment in each case. Postoperative fistulae closed in two of three patients. Enterocutaneous fistulae, however, remained open in all five patients, although the volume of secretion decreased distinctly in four. During the follow-up period (averaging nine months after discharge from hospital) symptoms recurred in five patients, necessitating operative treatment in three.

Local and surgical management of enterocutaneous fistulas.

Intensive nutritional treatment is now recognized as the single most important factor in achieving closure of enterocutaneous fistulas, replacing attempts at early surgical closure. Operation in the early stages of management should be confined to the drainage of abscesses, the defunctioning of diseases or disrupted bowel and the formation of feeding enterostomies. In those few cases where spontaneous closure of the fistula does not occur, definitive surgical operation can be carried out when malnutrition has been corrected. The combination of nutritional treatment, skin protection and judicious surgery can reduce the mortality to below 10 per cent.

The use of an elemental diet in gastro-intestinal diseases.

An elemental diet containing predigested protein, a high content of predigested fat and carhobydrate, trace elements and vitamins, was administered as the only form of nutrition to 9 adult patients with chlonic, ileal and pancreatic fistulae, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, malabsorption states and abdominal lymphoma, and to 4 children with protracted diarrhoea. The diet was administered orally through a nasogastric tube for 1 - 8 weeks. Two patients were treated on an outpatient basis. There was considrable clinical improvement in 6 adults and in 3 children. Two adults and 1 child did not respond and 1 adult did not co-operate. The results justify the use of this elemental diet in carefully selected patients under strict medical supervision.