[Nutritional support in the home-based hospitalization setting].
The Hospital at Home (HAD) is a choice of care that enables own care in a hospital at home patient. Moreover, the nutritional support (NS) -enteral or parenteral nutrition- is usually indicated in patients with serious underlying disease, and/or frequently remain severely disabled.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the characteristics of the patients, attended at home for specific questions of the NS that receive.


METHODS
descriptive and retrospective study of the patients attended by the Nutritional Support Unit (NSU), in the area of the HAD, from September 1, 2006 until August 31, 2007.


RESULTS
At home, the realized procedure was: refill of gastrostomia or jejunostomia feeding tube in 158 cases; modification of the guideline of enteral nutrition (EN) or parenteral nutrition (PN) in 53 cases; training of the skill of artificial nutrition in 14 cases. 39 visits were realized by complications -by infection or lead throught the estoma and by obstruction of the feeding tube-. Only in 3 patients (7.7%) the domiciliary assistance indicated the movement of the patient to the Emergency Unit.


CONCLUSIONS
In our center, the infrastructure of the HAD has allowed to give answer to the needs of the patients who receive NS at home in our area of influence.
Chicharro
L
L
Unidad de Soporte Nutricional, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebrón, Barcelona, España. 24065mcs@comb.es
Planas
M
M
Pérez-Portabella
C
C
Vélez
C
C
San José
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D018575:Home Care Services, Hospital-Based; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018529:Nutritional Support; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult