Objective:

this study aimed to assess the main factors related to mortality in a cohort of hospitalized adult patients who required parenteral nutrition (PN) considering their characteristics, type of admission, procedures, nutritional data, and adverse events.

Methods:

a retrospective study was performed in a 400-bed university hospital. All adult inpatients that had received ≥ 4 days as first course of PN within 24 months were included. Patients with long-term (> 90 days) or home PN were excluded. The main variable was all-cause mortality at 90 days after the end of PN. Initial independent variables were anthropometric and demographic data, admission characteristics, severity, comorbidity, surgical/medical procedures, baseline biochemical parameters, nutritional risk, and other nutritional data, medications, and adverse events during PN. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was planned to analyze time-to-event data.

Results:

a total of 634 patients entered the study and 140 (22.1 %) died. Patients were mainly: surgical 471 (74.3 %), male 393 (62.0 %), and age 69.0 (67.8-70.1) years old. The survival time for the entire cohort was 74.0 (95 % CI: 71.6-76.6) days. The final model included 14 variables, with severity and comorbidity being the main ones, but including also anastomotic suture dehiscence, sepsis during PN, days with hyperglycemic events, use of potent opioids, failed attempts at enteral nutrition, and, as a protective one, energy provided in PN.

Conclusions:

the factors related to mortality in hospitalized adult patients who required PN were mainly severity and comorbidities, but several other important factors were also relevant and could be modified to maximize outcomes in these patients.

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