Introduction: The creation of a Nutrition Unit (NU), with a specialized professional establishing homogenous criteria and standardized proceedings for the use of parenteral nutrition (PN) may improve the clinical course of the patients and decrease the number of technique-related complications.
Objectives: To describe the clinical characteristics of the patients submitted to PN at our Center. To assess the effect that the implementation of a NU has on the patients clinical course, and to know the frequency of mortality and hospital stay duration after the implementation of the NU at the University Hospital Complex of Albacete.
Material and methods: We reviewed the clinical charts of the patients receiving PN during the two years before and the two years after the creation of the NU by means of a two-period cohort study.
Results: Of the 390 patients, 100 belonged to the cohort before the NU and 290 to the following cohort. 61.3% of the patients were admitted at the surgery department. 25% of the patients had a personal history of digestive pathology. Among the reasons for ordering PN to the NU, surgical complications were the most common (66.7%). Oncologic abdominal surgery was the most common category (39.3%) out of the six in which the patients have been categorized. The mortality rate for the first cohort was 29% and for the second cohort 12.8% (p < 0,00). The average of stay days for the first cohort was 29.53 days and 27.67 days for the second one (p = 0.41).
Conclusions: The implementation of a NU has a positive impact on the clinical course of hospitalized patients submitted to PN.