Nutritional treatment in severe acute pancreatitis

Aim: The aim of our study was to evaluate the results of nutritional treatment in patients with severe acute pancreatitis.
Material and methods: We analyzed the clinical course, duration of parenteral or enteral nutrition, period of hospitalization and complications. We analyzed the material of 32 patients treated for severe acute pancreatitis which required nutritional support.
Results: All patients were qualified for nutritional treatment. In 4 patients enteral treatment was possible to introduce from the beginning of the disease. The remaining 28 patients required parenteral nutrition. Average time of nutritional intervention was 15.75 days (12-21 days) in the enteral vs. 16.23 days in the parenteral nutrition group. Average energy supplied in the enteral nutrition group was 18.3 kcal/kg body weight vs. 22.4 kcal/kg body weight in the parenteral nutrition group. Overall mortality rate was 9.6%. Average length of hospitalization was 21.3 days in the enteral nutrition group vs. 23.5 days in the parenteral nutrition group. Ten patients (31.2%) had complications that could have been side effects of nutritional treatment.
Conclusions: In some cases of severe acute pancreatitis, parenteral nutrition remains the only way of feeding due to the serious condition of the patient and impossibility of introducing enteral feeding from the beginning of the disease. In some patients qualified as cases of severe acute pancreatitis it is possible to apply enteral nutrition, but under the condition that there is good access to the alimentary tract and that there are no disorders in the intestinal passage.