The effect of nutritional support on life processes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit

The COVID-19 pandemic has became an epidemic that started abruptly in the first quarter of the 21st century and affected the whole world. COVID-19, which does not have a specific treatment yet and puts an excessive burden on the health system, has caused the filling of bed capacities in clinical and intensive care units and a rapid and accelerated increase in mortality rates. In this study, it is aimed to examine the effects of nutritional support applied to patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) with the diagnosis of COVID-19 on their life processes. In this retrospective study conducted with the data of 130 patients hospitalized in the ICU of a foundation university hospital; the effects of medical history, anamnesis, anthropometric measurements, biochemical parameters and nutritional supports on life processes were questioned. Patients with a median age of 73 (26-96) years and a median hospital stay of 8 (1-64) days; 47.7% are women and 52.3% are men. It is determined that 91.5% of the patients had one or more co-morbidity, and the 33.1% had insufficient diuresis. 10.8% of the patients were discharged and 64.6% of them (45 men, 39 women) have lost their lives. Intravenous vitamin C supplement was provided for 59.2% of the patients, it is shown that it had no positive effect on survival rates (p>0.05), it has been observed to cause negative effects especially in men (p=0.034). In addition, the body mass index was observed to pose no risk for survival (p>0.05). 21.5% of the patients were able to be fed orally and 54.6% of them received enteral-parenteral nutritional therapy, finally, it has been found that nutritional therapy has a significant effect on survival (p<0.001). Similarly, serum CRP (p=0.031), total protein and albumin are found to be important markers for survival rates. About COVID-19, which has a high incidence of morbidity and mortality; conducting more comprehensive studies to understand demographic, clinical and laboratory findings associated with early and continuous nutritional screening, intensive care support including optimal nutritional therapy and disease severity will shed light on the treatment models to be developed.