Abstract

GARCIA ALMANSA, A.  and  GARCIA PERIS, P.. Nutritional management of patients with acute pancreatitis: when the past is present. Nutr. Hosp. [online]. 2008, vol.23, suppl.2, pp.52-58. ISSN 1699-5198.

Patients with acute pancreatitis usually present nutritional status impairment. In alcoholic pancreatitis this impairment is usually presented before hospital admission. In patients with long-term complicated pancreatitis, malnutrition develops during the course of the disease. Besides, these patients present an increased stress and protein hypercatabolism. Treatment of acute pancreatitis usually maintains patients in a short period of starvation. In mild pancreatitis, starvation is needed for a few days, beginning progressively oral feeding. These patients don’t need special nutritional support, unless they were previously malnourished. Patients with severe acute pancreatitis should always receive artificial nutritional support in order to preserve the nutritional status as starvation will be maintained for more than one week. In this paper, we review the nutritional treatment in these situations, trying to answer some different questions: type of nutritional support, when it should be started and when it is indicated to withdraw.

Keywords : Severe acute pancreatitis; Enteral nutrition; Parenteral nutrition.

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