02 Feb Nutritional Supplementation Enhanced Pressure Ulcer Healing
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Emanuele Cereda, MD, PhD
Servizio di Dietetica e Nutrizione Clinica, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico
San Matteo, Pavia, Italy and
Federico D’Andrea MD
SCDO Dietetica e Nutrizione Clinica, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria “Maggiore della Carità”, Novara, Italy
MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Pressure ulcers (PUs) represent an important indicator of patient safety and quality of care. They negatively affect patient quality of life and increase healthcare costs. PUs are closely linked to malnutrition as it contributes not only to their development but also to impaired healing. It’s also a sign of neglect if the patient is in a nursing home so you may want to contact someone like this nursing home neglect lawyer if you are worried that your loved one is being mistreated. Pressure ulcers patients are frequently unable to meet energy requirements through spontaneous feeding and nutritional support becomes essential. International guidelines currently recommend nutritional assessment and nutritional support as most Pressure ulcers patients can take advantage from adequate supply of proteins and calories. Beside, recent studies have suggested that additional provision of larger amount of some nutrients putatively involved in wound healing – arginine, zinc and antioxidants – may be of additional benefit. The OEST study has specifically investigated the role of these nutrients and has demonstrated that supplementation of malnourished Pressure ulcers patients with an oral nutritional formula enriched with arginine, zinc and antioxidants improves Pressure ulcers healing, independently of the adequate supply of proteins and calories.
MedicalResearch: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Response: Nutritional status is a factor that can be influenced positively. Evidence supports recommending nutritional care – from assessment practices to tailored interventions – as an integral part of Pressure ulcers care. Nutritional support can improve PU healing and consistently with clinical conditions and/or specific dietary restrictions, a high-calorie, high-protein nutritional support should be provided. Protein and calories are undoubtedly the building bricks for new tissues synthesis. Nonetheless, based on the findings from our study, in Pressure ulcers patient’s supplementation the use of a high-calorie, high-protein nutritional formula enriched with arginine, zinc, and antioxidants should be preferred whenever available as it allows faster healing and recovery.
MedicalResearch: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: Indeed, we all know that pressure ulcers are responsible for a substantial economic burden. Better treatments are generally more expensive and their use should be evaluated in economic analyses. This is a matter of necessity as healthcare systems aim at money saving, as much as possible. Economic evaluations of our trial’s data are ongoing and we hope to make them available soon. We think that cost-effectiveness is the missing piece of the puzzle as it allows. Clinical efficacy is the perspective of the patient but also of the healthcare system. On the other hand, the healthcare system has reasonably other endpoints and achieving better outcome with money saving is likely, nowadays, a clinical imperative.
Citation:
Annals of Internal Medicine 2015 Feb 3
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:, & Emanuele Cereda, MD, PhD (2015). Nutritional Supplementation Enhanced Pressure Ulcer Healing MedicalResearch.com
Last Updated on February 2, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD