About United for Clinical Nutrition Fresenius Kabi

About United for clinical nutrition

To overcome hospital malnutrition in countries around the world, in 2015 Fresenius Kabi established “United for clinical nutrition”. This multinational initiative seeks to reduce the prevalence of this condition through education, data collection, and clinical assessment in key geographical regions.

In 2018, the commitment will be continued throughout Asia with a special focus on surgical patients in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In surgical patients, poor nutritional status can lead to severe negative clinical and economic consequences including: impaired wound healing, increased risk of postoperative complications, prolonged hospitalization, reduced quality of life, and increased healthcare costs.1-11

In order to change this, the first step for ‘United for clinical nutrition’ is to raise awareness of hospital malnutrition. Based upon this, the solution - nutrition therapy administered by healthcare professionals - can be discussed with the focus on priority patient groups, like surgical patients.

Recent studies have shown that adequate nutrition support compared to standard care can lower complication rates in surgical and medical gastroenterology patients,.12-13 Specifically, adequate preoperative nutritional therapy reduces the detrimental consequences of surgical site infections in malnourished patients.14

In addition, adequate clinical nutrition has the beneficial impact of reducing health care costs and lessens the burden on resources.12 

Accordingly, the purpose of ‘United for clinical nutrition’ is to initiate a rethinking. Through the ‘United for clinical nutrition’ website, healthcare professionals can access articles, news, videos, webinars, downloads, and practical guides to learn about hospital malnutrition and its detection and treatment.

The use of nutrition risk screenings, nutritional assessments, appropriate nutrition support and regular follow-ups to improve clinical nutrition can significantly reduce hospital malnutrition.15-18

The mission of “United for clinical nutrition” is simple: support therapy success and quality of life.


References

  1. Corish CA. Pre-operative nutritional assessment. Proc Nutr Soc. 1999;58(4):821–29.
  2. Howard L, Ashley C. Nutrition in the perioperative patient Annu Rev Nutr. 2003;23:263–82.
  3. Demling RH. Nutrition, anabolism, and the wound healing process: an overview. Eplasty 2009;9:e9. Epub 2009 Feb 3.
  4. Daniels L. Good nutrition for good surgery: clinical and quality of life outcomes. Aust Prescr. 2003;26:136–40.
  5. Ho JW, Wu AH, Lee MW, et al. Malnutrition risk predicts surgical outcomes in patients undergoing gastrointestinal operations: Results of a prospective study. Clin Nutr. 2015;34(4):679–84.
  6. Ali Abdelhamid Y, Chapman MJ, Deane AM. Peri-operative nutrition. Anaesthesia. 2016;71(1):9–18.
  7. Schiesser M, Kirchhoff P, Muller MK, et al. The correlation of nutrition risk index, nutrition risk score, and bioimpedance analysis with postoperative complications in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. Surgery. 2009;145:519–26.
  8. Garth AK, Newsome CM, Simmance N, et al. Nutritional status, nutrition practices and post-operative complications in patients with gastrointestinal cancer. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2010;23(4):393–401.
  9. Leandro-Merhi VA, de Aquino JL, Sales Chagas JF. Nutrition status and risk factors associated with length of hospital stay for surgical patients. J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2011;35:241–48.
  10. Garcia RS, Tavares LR, Pastore CA. Nutritional screening in surgical patients of a teaching hospital from Southern Brazil: the impact of nutritional risk in clinical outcomes. Einstein.2013;11:147–52.
  11. Melchior JC, Preaud E, Carles J, et al. Clinical and economic impact of malnutrition per se on the postoperative course of colorectal cancer patients. Clin Nutr. 2012;31(6):896–902.
  12. Zhang H, Wang Y, Jiang Z-M, et al. Impact of nutrition support on clinical outcome and cost-effectiveness analysis in patients at nutritional risk: a prospective cohort study with propensity score matching. Nutrition. 2017;37:53–59
  13. Jie B, Jiang Z-M, Nolan MT, et al. Impact of nutritional support on clinical outcome in patients at nutritional risk: A multicenter, prospective cohort study in Baltimore and Beijing teaching hospitals. Nutrition. 2010;26:1088–1093
  14. Fukuda Y, Yamamoto K, Hirao M, et al. Ann Surg Oncol 2015; DOI 10.1245/s10434-015-4820-9.
  15. Meijers JM, Schols JM, van Bokhorst-de van der Schueren MA, et al. Malnutrition prevalence in The Netherlands: results of the annual Dutch national prevalence measurement of care problems. Br J Nutr. 2009;101(3):417-23.
  16. Hiesmayr M, Schindler K, Pernicka E et al. Decreased food intake is a risk factor for mortality in hospitalised patients: the NutritionDay survey. 2006. Clin Nutr 2009;28(5):484-91.
  17. Kruizenga HM, Van Tulder MW, Seidell JC, et al. Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of early screening and treatment of malnourished patients. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005;82(5):1082-89.
  18. De van der Schueren M, Elia M, Gramlich L, et al. Clinical and economic outcomes of nutrition interventions across the continuum of care. Ann NY Acad Sci. 2014;1321:20-40.
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