Nutrition Support for Critically Ill Patients With Cancer.

Oncology patients often experience the classic signs of malnutrition-weight loss as well as fat and muscle wasting, which have been associated with poor tolerance to treatment and increased morbidity and mortality. Nutrition status may be an important factor in determining tolerance to treatment and outcomes associated with it. Thus, identification of those with preexisting malnutrition or who are at risk for developing malnutrition is crucial not only at time of cancer diagnosis but also throughout the treatment course so that nutrition interventions may be implemented to prevent development or worsening of malnutrition in this high-risk population. These patients often have extremely complicated hospital courses due to the aggressive nature of the disease and treatment, leading to intensive care unit admission and periods of critical illness. Critical illness is associated with catabolism, extreme stress on the body, and a state of systemic inflammation. During critical illness, it is important to provide adequate nutrition to prevent further break down of lean muscle mass and oxidative cellular injury and to regulate favorable immune responses. The purpose of this review is to discuss the importance of nutrition screening and assessment for the critically ill patient with cancer; to appropriately identify those at risk for, or who have developed, malnutrition; and to provide appropriate interventions to optimize nutrition status. This review also discusses the complications and difficulties associated with feeding this patient population and offers nutrition support recommendations.

Predictors of insulin requirements among hospitalized adults receiving parenteral nutrition.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this quality improvement project was to determine factors predictive of parenteral nutrition (PN) insulin therapy. METHODS: Patients receiving PN at a tertiary care academic medical center between January 1, 2009, and December 1, 2012, 18 years or older were included. Variables collected included demographics, medical information, and PN-specific data. χ(2) and Student t tests were used to determine differences between patients who did and did not require PN insulin. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to determine associations between characteristics. Stepwise forward logistic regression was used determine the best predictors of PN insulin. RESULTS: A total of 1388 patients were started on PN. After adjusting for potential confounders, strong associations existed between PN insulin requirements and diabetes mellitus (DM) diagnosis (OR, 8.90; 95% CI, 4.98-15.90, P < .001), overweight/obese status (body mass index ≥25.0 kg/m(2)) (OR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.04-4.30, P = .04), intensive care unit (ICU) admission (OR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.03-3.11, P = .04), blood glucose (BG) on day of PN start >120 mg/dL (OR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.32-4.05, P = .003), mean BG >180 mg/dL while receiving PN (OR, 6.10; 95% CI, 2.18-17.04, P = .001), and hemoglobin A1c (A1c) ≥5.7% (OR, 3.18; 95% CI, 1.84-5.50, P < .001). Among variables available at PN initiation, DM diagnosis (P < .001), A1c ≥5.7% (P < .001), BG >120 mg/dL on PN start day (P < .001), and ICU admission (P < .001) predicted the need for PN insulin.