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Worldwide survey of nutritional practices in PICUs
37
2
Of the 295 patients included in the
point prevalence
, 60%were male patients and 58% younger
than 1 year. Median length of stay (LOS) at moment of data collection was 6 days (IQR, 2-15),
with a LOS greater than 7 days in 40% of the patients. Median weight was 7 kg (IQR, 4-16), and
46% of the children were mechanically ventilated.
Nutritional support
According to the first part of the
survey
, a nutritional protocol was present in 52% of PICUs;
protocol characteristics are shown in Table 2. A Nutrition Support Team (NST) was available
in 57% of the PICUs and 51% of the teams visited the ICU daily. The composition of an NST
differed; it consisted mostly of dieticians (88%) and pediatric intensivists (51%).
In the
point prevalence
part of the study, median caloric intake did not differ in children fed by
EN exclusively (
n
= 129) between the following four groups (
p
= 0.18): 1) PICUs with an NST
(76 kcal/kg/d), 2) PICUs with a nutritional protocol (76 kcal/kg/d), 3) PICUs with both an NST
and nutritional protocol (64 kcal/kg/d), and 4) PICUs without an NST and protocol (58 kcal/
kg/d). There was also no difference in the proportion of children receiving EN in PICUs with and
without an NST and/or protocol.
Table 2.
Characteristics of nutritional protocols
Characteristic
No. of PICUs (%)
Total 156
Protocol available
82 (52)
Information in protocol
Assessment of energy requirements
Protein requirements
Management of gastric residual volume
Type of EN
Amount of EN
Composition of PN
Amount of PN
72 (89)
65 (81)
57 (71)
72 (89)
75 (94)
71 (88)
72 (89)
Protocol age/weight differentiated
Not
For EN
For PN
For both EN and PN
6 (7.7)
8 (10)
7 (8.7)
59 (74)
EN = Enteral Nutrition, PN = Parenteral Nutrition
Nutritional requirements
To predict energy expenditure (EE) different equations were used according to the first part
of the
survey
, mainly those published by Schofield
17
(25%) and the World Health Organization
(WHO)
18
(25%), but also the Harris-Benedict equation
19
(17%). Seventy percent used correction
factors, as fever (41% of PICUs), diagnosis (54%) and growth (23%) to calculate energy needs.
Twenty-four percent of respondents did not know which equation was used to calculate EE
in their unit. Indirect calorimetry (IC) to measure EE was used in 14% of the PICUs. The first