title: Importance of nutritional status in recovery from acute cholecystitis: benefit from enteral nutrition supplementation including medium chain triglycerides.
abstract: This study was undertaken to clarify the importance of nutritional status in patients with acute cholecystitis, and also evaluate whether they benefited from enteral nutrition supplementation, including medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), during the convalescent stage. Patients with acute cholecystitis admitted to our hospital between April 1994 and March 2002 were classified into a poor nutrition group (n=40; total serum protein<5.0 g/dl) or a fair nutrition group (n=71; >5.0 g/dl). Patients with poor nutrition were significantly more elderly than those with fair nutrition, and had significantly higher serum C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations. The two groups did not differ significantly with respect to other laboratory data, gender distribution, or medical treatment. We supplemented ordinary meals with enteral nutrition including MCT in 16 patients during the convalescent stage (MCT group). We compared their length of hospital stay and days required to recovery to pre-admission functional status for activities of daily living (ADL) with the same intervals in 16 patients without supplementation (non-MCT group) selected to match for age, gender, and fair or poor nutritional status from among 111 patients. Hospitalizations were significantly longer in the poor nutrition group (43.0+/-2.2 days) than in the fair nutrition group (27.0+/-8.2 days). Significantly more days were required to recover ADL status in the poor nutrition group (12.0+/-7.2 days) than in the fair group (9.4+/-5.2 days). Hospitalizations were significantly shorter in the MCT group (20.1+/-15 days) than in the non-MCT group (35.4+/-12.8 days). Significantly fewer days were required to recover ADL status in the MCT group (10.9+/-7 days) than in the non-MCT group (13.1+/-6.8 days). Administration of enteral nutrition including MCT during convalescence from acute cholecystitis thus appears to promote functional recovery shorten hospital stay.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Fujita Health University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Yukinobu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Inui
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yoshino
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wakabayashi
authors.forename: Kazumu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okushima
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Hironao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miyoshi
authors.forename: Yuta
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D041881:Cholecystitis, Acute / Q000628:therapy*; D004750:Enteral Nutrition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D018529:Nutritional Support; D020127:Recovery of Function; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000627:therapeutic use*