Resumo

HIERRO GONZALEZ, Alfredo; HANO GARCIA, Olga Marina  e  GONZALEZ FABIAN, Licet. Nutritional assessment of compensated cirrhotic patients. Rev cubana med [online]. 2012, vol.51, n.3, pp. 208-217. ISSN 0034-7523.

Introduction: protein-energy malnutrition is the most common complication in cirrhotic patients. Nutritional assessment is difficult and care is deficient. Objective: evaluate the nutritional status of patients with liver cirrhosis. Methods: an observational descriptive study was conducted of 19 patients of both sexes aged 15-60 diagnosed with compensated liver cirrhosis, cared for at 10 de Octubre Clinical Surgical Hospital from January 2008 to January 2009, with the purpose of evaluating their nutritional status. The variables studied were age and sex, anthropometric measurements (weight, height, arm circumference and body mass index), laboratory data and dietary information. Results: there was a prevalence of the male sex and the 45-54 age group. Most patients were between 6 months and one year from diagnosis. Malnutrition was found to be high, based on body mass index. Arm circumference was the least affected anthropometric indicator. Anemia was present in more than 50 %, and 26 % had lymphopenia. It was found that as the frequency of meals a day decreased, there was an increase in the frequency and intensity of malnutrition. Conclusions: protein-energy malnutrition was high in the cirrhotic population studied, with higher malnutrition rates in cases of alcoholic origin. It was also found that the nutritional status of cirrhotic patients can only be assessed with reference to dietary factors.

Palavras-chave : malnutrition; undernourishment; liver cirrhosis; body mass index; dietary factors.

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