The effects of enteral and parenteral nutrition on sodium, potassium and blood gases in icu patients comparison

Most of the patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit need nutritional support and for this, the patients should be fed with the appropriate nutrition method within the first 24 hours. While the energy requirement of a healthy individual is 25- 30 kg/kcal, the energy requirement needed during the intensive care process may change. It has been observed that adequate nutrition cannot be provided as a result of decreased energy intake due to various reasons such as abdominal swelling, vomiting, diarrhea, pneumonia, low nutritional tolerance, and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. In the study, the daily nutrition follow-up of the patients who were determined which nutrition type they would prefer was made, and it was aimed to compare the effects of enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition on sodium, potassium and blood gases. It was carried out in Istanbul NPIstanbul Brain Hospital between February - April 2021, with the approval of the ethics committee and the approval of the patient's relatives. Excluding the patients with COVID-19 from 85 patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU), 35 patients were included according to the 5% acceptable error and 95% confidence level calculations. Among these patient groups, patients over 50 years of age and Diabetes, Hypertension, Chronic Heart Disease (CHD), Respiratory Failure Cerebrovascular (CVO) Diseases were included in the study group. In order for the study to be meaningful, 5-day blood gas and nutrition patterns were recorded. 57,1% of the participants were male; While 42,9% are women and 24 people are fed only enterally, 11 of them are fed only parenterally. 54,3% of the participants were 70 years old and under, 45,7% were 71 years old and over, and the mean age was 69,08±11.37 years. The mean weights were determined as 78,13±17,39 kg. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 program and MS Excel 2016 program. Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, median and percentiles were used in descriptive statistics. Numerical data were analyzed with the Shapiro-Wilk test and analysis was selected according to the normal distribution of the data. While the two groups, which are divided into enteral and parenteral, are compared within themselves, since the number of observations is below 30, non-parametric analyzes are applied directly without examining the distribution; Parametric tests were used for variables with more than 30 observation numbers and data with normal distribution. In non-parametric tests; Mann Whitney U, Friedman Test; The independent sample t-test was used as one of the parametric tests. The significance of the variables containing three or more parameters was analyzed with Bonferroni correction. In the analysis of repeated nominal variables, an evaluation was made by using Cochran' s Q. Based on the obtained data and statistical analysis results, it was concluded that there is no significant difference between enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition on sodium, potassium and blood gases. As a result, a more comprehensive and long-term study could be carried out by working with a larger number of patients, taking into account external factors such as the hospitalization period of the patient and stress factors.