title: Characteristics and current practice of parenteral nutrition in hospitalized patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  For 40 years, parenteral nutrition (PN) has provided therapeutic benefits to patients unable to receive oral/enteral nutrition. Very limited published evidence exists to describe modern PN practices or characteristics of patients receiving PN. The aim of this article was to describe the characteristics of hospitalized patients receiving PN in 196 U.S. hospitals to define patient groups at risk for PN-related complications. This will provide researchers a baseline understanding about who is receiving hospital-based PN to maximize generalizability and validity of future research.
  
  
  METHODS
  Claims data from the Premier Perspective database, the largest inpatient clinical database in the United States, were used to evaluate hospital-based PN practices. Data gathered between January 2005 and December 2007 included a total of 106,374 patients receiving PN. A total of 68,984 adults (age ≥ 18 years), 34,307 infants (age <1 year), and 3083 pediatric patients (age 1-17 years) were evaluated. Key variables such as admitting diagnosis, infection rates, in-hospital mortality, and costs were extracted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hospitalized patients requiring PN in the United States are older and more often white than the overall hospitalized population. Hospitalized PN patients are more likely to be admitted emergently and have a higher severity of illness. Bloodstream infection rates in adult PN patients (25.5%) were considerably higher than in pediatric (14.7%) or neonatal patients (1.7%) receiving PN.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings are the first large-scale description of "real-world" hospital-based PN practices in the United States, helping set a baseline for future PN research.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Denver, Colorado 80045., USA. paul.wischmeyer@ucdenver.edu
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Wischmeyer
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Weitzel
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mercaldi
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zaloga
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hise
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pontes-Arruda
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Turpin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007239:Infections; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010288:Parenteral Nutrition; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010361:Patients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044469:Racial Groups; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult