Abstract

HIERRO GONZALEZ, Alfredo; HANO GARCIA, Olga Marina  and  GONZALEZ FABIAN, Licet. Nutritional assessment in patients with compensated liver cirrhosis treated at the Mouila Regional Hospital, Gabon, 2009-2010. Rev cubana med [online]. 2013, vol.52, n.1, pp. 37-48. ISSN 0034-7523.

Introduction: some researchers believe that protein energy malnutrition is the most common complication in cirrhotic patients and it is an independent predictor of survival element. Objectives: to determine the nutritional status and its relationship to the cause, time of evolution and caloric intake in patients with compensated liver cirrhosis. Methods: a descriptive study of all Gabonese patients of both sexes, between the ages 15 and 60 years, with this diagnosis. Women and the group between 45 and 54 years was found predominant (mean age 45 years (± 7.6)). Additionally, mixed cause and group A in Child-Pugh-Turcotte widely existed. All patients had diagnosis of this disease for less than a year and according to their body mass index, protein-energy malnutrition was observed in 75% of cases; moderate thinness predominated. The arm circumference was less frequently and intensively affected than the body mass index. To the extent that the number of meals reduced per day, the percentage of patients with protein-energy malnutrition increased. Conclusions: the frequency of malnutrition of compensated cirrhotic population was high, with the highest rate of malnutrition in cases of mixed causes; it also was proved that the nutritional status of cirrhotic patient cannot be valued regardless of dietary factors.

Keywords : malnutrition; liver cirrhosis; body mass index; dietary factors.

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