Nutritional care is a human right: Translating principles to clinical practice.

We have previously advocated that nutritional care be raised to the level of a human right, in close relationship to two well-recognized fundamental rights: the right to food and the right to health. This article aims to analyze the implication of nutritional care as a human right for healthcare practitioners. We will focus on the impact of the Human Rights Basic Approach (HRBA) on healthcare professionals (HCPs), namely how they can translate HRBA into routine clinical practice. Ethics and human rights are guiding values for clinical nutrition practitioners. Together they ensure a patient-centered approach, in which the needs and rights of the patients are of the most significant importance. Human rights are based on the powerful idea of equal dignity for all people while expressing a set of core values, including fairness, respect, equality, dignity, and autonomy (FREDA). Through the analysis of FREDA principles, we have provided the elements to understand human rights and how an HRBA can support clinicians in the decision-making process. Clinical practice guidelines in clinical nutrition should incorporate disease-specific ethical issues and the HRBA. The HRBA should contribute to building conditions for HCPs to provide optimal and timely nutritional care. Nutritional care must be exercised by HCPs with due respect for several fundamental ethical values: attentiveness, responsibility competence, responsiveness, and solidarity.

Clinical Nutrition and Human Rights. An International Position Paper.

The International Working Group for Patients' Right to Nutritional Care presents its position paper regarding nutritional care as a human right intrinsically linked to the right to food and the right to health. All people should have access to food and evidence-based medical nutrition therapy including artificial nutrition and hydration. In this regard, the hospitalized malnourished ill should mandatorily have access to screening, diagnosis, nutritional assessment, with optimal and timely nutritional therapy in order to overcome malnutrition associated morbidity and mortality, while reducing the rates of disease-related malnutrition. This right does not imply there is an obligation to feed all patients at any stage of life and at any cost. On the contrary, this right implies, from an ethical point of view, that the best decision for the patient must be taken and this may include, under certain circumstances, the decision not to feed. Application of the human rights-based approach to the field of clinical nutrition will contribute to the construction of a moral, political, and legal focus to the concept of nutritional care. Moreover, it will be the cornerstone to the rationale of political and legal instruments in the field of clinical nutrition.

[Cartagena Declaration. The International Declaration on the Right to Nutritional Care and the Fight against Malnutrition]. / Declaración de Cartagena. Declaración Internacional sobre el Derecho al Cuidado Nutricional y la Lucha contra la Malnutrición.

INTRODUCTION: The need to promote the right to nutritional care, to fight against malnutrition and to advance in education and research in clinical nutrition has led all the FELANPE's societies to sign on May 3rd, during the 33rd Congress of the Colombian Clinical Nutrition Association (ACNC) in the city of Cartagena, the International Declaration on the Right to Nutritional Care and the Fight against Malnutrition, "Declaration of Cartagena". The Declaration provides a coherent framework of 13 principles which can serve as a guide for societies, schools and associations affiliated to FELANPE in the development of action plans. In addition, it will serve as an instrument to promote, through governments, the formulation of policies and legislation in the field of clinical nutrition. We believe that the general framework of principles proposed by the Declaration can contribute to raise awareness about the magnitude of this problem and to promote cooperation networks among Latin-American countries. Although this Declaration does not have a binding legal effect, it has an undeniable moral strength and it can provide practical guidance to States. An implementation program will allow developing a toolkit to transform principles into actions.

INTRODUCCIÓN: Frente a la necesidad de promover el derecho al cuidado nutricional, de luchar contra la malnutrición y de avanzar en temas de educación e investigación en nutrición clínica, las sociedades que constituyen la FELANPE firmaron la Declaración Internacional sobre el Derecho al Cuidado Nutricional y la Lucha contra la Malnutrición, "Declaración de Cartagena", el 3 de mayo del presente año en la ciudad de Cartagena, en el marco del 33º Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Nutrición Clínica. La Declaración proporciona un marco coherente de 13 principios, los cuales podrán servir de guía a las sociedades afiliadas a la FELANPE en el desarrollo de los planes de acción. Además, servirá como un instrumento para que promuevan, a través de los gobiernos, la formulación de políticas y legislaciones en el campo de la nutrición clínica. Consideramos que el marco general de principios propuesto por la Declaración puede contribuir a crear conciencia acerca de la magnitud de este problema y a forjar redes de cooperación entre los países de la región. Aunque esta Declaración no tiene un efecto jurídico vinculante (obligatorio), tiene una fuerza moral innegable y puede proporcionar orientación práctica a los estados. Un plan de implementación permitirá desarrollar la caja de herramientas necesaria para transformar los principios en acciones.

Deferred primary anastomosis versus diversion in patients with severe secondary peritonitis managed with staged laparotomies.

BACKGROUND: There is inconclusive data on whether critically ill individuals with severe secondary peritonitis requiring multiple staged laparotomies may became eligible candidates for deferred primary anastomoses (DPA). We sought to compare a protocol for DPA against a protocol for diversion in severely ill critical patients with intra-abdominal sepsis. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed examining 112 patients admitted through an ICU between 2002 and 2006, with diagnosis of secondary peritonitis and managed with staged laparotomies whom required small- or large-bowel segment resections. Patients were categorized and compared according to the surgical treatment necessitated to resolve the secondary peritonitis (DPA versus diversion). Outcome measures were days on mechanical ventilation, days required in ICU, days required in hospital, incidence of fistulas/leakages, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and mortality. RESULTS: There were 34 patients subjected to DPA and 78 to diversion. Fistulas/leakages developed in three patients (8.8%) with DPA and four patients (5.1%) with diversion (p = 0.359). ARDS was present in 6 patients (17.6%) with DPA and 24 patients (30.8%) with diversion (p = 0.149). There were 30 patients (88.2%) with DPA and 65 patients (83.3%) with diversion discharged alive (p = 0.51). There were not statistical significant differences between groups among survivors regarding hospital length of stay, ICU length of stay, and days on mechanical ventilation. CONCLUSIONS: We did not find significant differences in morbidity or mortality when we compared DPA versus diversion surgical treatment. It is feasible to perform a primary anastomosis in critically ill patients with severe secondary peritonitis managed with staged laparotomies.

Simposio: cirugía experimental en México (parte I): producción in vivo e in vitro de óxido nítrico por hepatocitos / Symposium: experimental surgery in Mexico (part l): in vivo and in vitro production of nitric oxide by hepatocytes

Objetivo: Demostrar que el óxido nítrico producido por el hígado juega un papel protector en este órgano durante episodios de sepsis. Diseño: Estudio experimental en animales, prospectivo con grupo control. Material y métodos: Se utilizaron ratas Sprague-Dawley machos con peso entre 200 y 250 g. Para experimento in vivo, los animales recibieron una sola inyección de 28 mg/kg/IV de Corynebacterium parvum; ratas normales se emplearon como controles y donadores de hepatocitos para los estudios in vitro. Los hepatocitos normales y estimulados con C. parvum fueron aislados utilizando una modificación a la técnica de perfusión de colagenasa in situ; fueron colocados en platos de Petri con una capa de gelatina de 100 mm en 6 ml de medio de cultivo que contenía: L-arginina, insulina, L-glutaminam, penicilina, streptomicina y 10 por ciento de suero bajo en endotoxina. Después e 24 h en cultivo los hepatocitos recibieron medio frasco adicionado de citoquinas (INF+TNF+IL-1) y endotoxina (LPS para estimular la producción de óxido nítrico in vitro. Los sobrenadantes fueron colectados, almacenados y sujetos a medición de NO2 + NO3 empleando un método automático colorimétrico

Utilizacion de un indice de severidad para medir pronostico en trauma penetrante abdominal / Use of a severity index to measure prognosis in penetrating abdominal trauma

En los ultimos diez anos, ha existido un alarmante aumento de la cantidad y calidad del trauma en el pais, lo que ha copado los recursos fisicos y humanos de los hospitales, haciendolos insuficientes. Con el fin de desarrollar una herramienta que permitiera conocer la severidad del trauma abdominal para efectos de triage y dedicacion adecuada de recursos, se utilizo el Indice de Trauma Penetrante Abdominal desarrollado por Moore en 1981. aplicandolo en 140 pacientes que ingresaron al Hospital Universitario San Vicente de Paul, de Medellin entre Sept. 1986 y Enero de 1987; se encontro que esta escala no era predictiva en nuestro medio, pues era incapaz de discriminar poblaciones de alto riesgo para complicaciones mayores y menores. Por esta razon se decidio hacer un estudio con el fin de analizar que variables influyen en el pronostico de los pacientes con trauma penetrante abdominal. Se encontro que las siguientes variables tienen gran significacion pronostica: el grado de contaminacion de la cavidad abdominal el tiempo transcurrido entre el accidente y el ingreso del paciente al hospital y la presencia de shock. Con base en estas variables y el Indice de Moore se diseno una nueva escala que denominamos Escala de Moore Modificada, y se hallo que esta era altamente significativa para predecir aquellos pacientes con alto riesgo de complicaciones mayores y menores. Los autores opinan que esta escala se debe utilizar, tanto en la toma de decisiones clinicas como para el diseno de grupos facilmente comparables en investigacions de pacientes con trauma penetrante...

During the last ten years there has been an alarming increase in the amount and severity of trauma in Colombia which has overcome the physical and human resources at all hospitals rendering them insufficient. Between September 1, 1986 and January 31, 1987, we applied the index of Penetrating Abdominal Trauma, described by Moore In 1981, to 140 patients admitted to Hospital Universitario San Vicente de Paúl, Medellín, Colombia. The purpose was to develop a tool that allowed us to classify the severity of trauma and to adequately triage the patients and allocate the necessary resources for their care. Nevertheless, in our hands, this scale was not found to be predictive because It could not discriminate between groups of patients at high risk for major or minor complications. For this reason we decided to analize the variables that determine the prognosis of patients with penetrating abdominal trauma and the following ones were found to have prognostic significance: degree of abdominal cavity contamination (p=0.0001 ), length of time between accident and hospital admission (p=0.01) and the presence of shock (p=0.01 )...