NUTRITIONAL SURVEY IN CRITICALLY ILL CHILDREN AND THEIR IMPACT ON ANTHROPOMETRIC INDICES AND OUTCOME

Malnutrition has a high incidence among patients hospitalized to PICUs. It has a major impact on a childs outcome, including death, morbidity, and length of ICU stay.^1,2,3 During this acute phaseinICU,there is decreased energy and protein delivery to body tissues. So the metabolism shifts to catabolic. Although initially these changes are life saving for the child but as a whole these changes deteriorate the nutritional status of the child. And if it coupled with suboptimal nutrition intake during ICU stay then it leads to significant anthropometric deterioration.^,

Objectives:

1.To evaluate incidence of malnutrition in critically ill children admitted to PICU.

2.To find the change in anthropometric indices mainly weight in critically ill children after illness phase in PICU.

3.Impact of enteral nutrition on outcome of child.

Study Design: Prospective observational study conducted in pediatric intensive care unit over a period of 6 months from 1/02/2024 to 31/07/2024.

Results and Conclusions: The findings demonstrated that malnutrition was prevalent among children admitted to PICU. Girl children were especially affected more than boys.Early start of enteral nutrition (within 24 hours) can reduce the overall mortality rates and ICU stay in normal and malnourished children therefore the practice must be encouraged with proper protocols especially in intensive care units.

Limitations of the study: Our current study has limitations that include small sample size, patient heterogenicity, variable disease severity, lack of information on baseline nutritional status and insufficient statistical power for analysis.