Practical applications of nutritional scores

Purpose of review
Any intensive therapy requires individual adaptation, despite the standardization of the concepts that support them. Among these therapies, nutritional care has repeatedly been shown to influence clinical outcome. In order to evaluate the risk of malnutrition among critically ill patients and to identify those patients who may benefit from medical nutrition therapy is imperative to have a validated screening tool to optimize nutritional care.
The scope of this review is to analyze the recent literature on the management of nutritional scores for patients admitted to the ICU.
Recent findings
Critically ill patient staying for more than 24–48 h in the ICU, if unable to eat, should be considered at risk for malnutrition. Several nutritional tools have been proposed but not all are validated to screening those patients. The limitations of existing screening tools are described.
Summary
Nutritional scores should be routinely performed at ICU admission according to recommended guidelines. An approach to incorporate these tools into everyday clinical practice is suggested.

Source: Current Opinion in Critical Care - July 30, 2020 Category: Nursing Tags: METABOLIC SUPPORT: Edited by Karin Amrein and Gennaro Martucci Source Type: research