Outcomes of a Computer Program for Energy, and Nutrients Intakes for Critical Surgical Patients

Abstract

The surgical patients are at risk of malnutrition, especially in intensive care unit, as their energy intakes are inappropriate comparing with estimated daily caloric requirement. The author applied new a program computer to calculate the appropriate daily caloric requirement based on Harris-Benedict and Estimated factor. This was cross-sectional study with the objective of nutritional assessment of critical surgical patients by the computer program in 75 intensive care unit patients in Samut Sakhon Hospital between 1 January and 31 March 2012. There were only 13.3 and 9.3 percent of patients respectively who received appropriate nutrition and energy. The differences between the actual and the estimated energy were statistically significant when analyzed with pairedsample t-test (p <0.001). Others were either underfeeding or overfeeding patients. Application of this simple calculating tool might be useful for the doctors and nutritional team in appropriate nutritional adjustment for better patient care and outcomes.