Introduction:

Critically ill care units report numerous cases of malnutrition. In order to estimate such statistics, it is necessary to use dietary, anthropometric, biochemical and immunological indicators.

Objective:

To characterize the nutritional status of postoperative patients admitted to an intensive care unit.

Methods:

A descriptive, prospective, cross-sectional study was carried out. The values ​​were obtained from the indicators of the type anthropometric (average arm and calf circumference), biochemical (albumin, cholesterol, triglycerides and creatinine) and immunological (total lymphocyte count) of 98 patients admitted to the unit. The nutritional status was evaluated by independent variables.

Results:

Patients with 1-7 days of stay predominated (71.4%), mechanical ventilation was used in 33.6%, 19.3% of patients died, and the group of intra-abdominal conditions predominated (38.8%). Lymphopenia (68.3%) and hypoalbuminemia (62.2%) were more significant, followed by average arm circumference (AAC) in the malnutrition range (47.9%). There was no association of nutritional variables with the stay, nor the need for mechanical ventilation. All the variables were associated with the state at the time of discharge.

Conclusions:

A stay of about one week predominated, one third of the sample required ventilatory support, and mortality was low. Among all the nutritional variables studied, no association was found with the stay or the use of mechanical ventilation, but instead with the state at discharge.

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