Litigation

Nutrition Supplementation Important Following Brain Damage To Improve Outcome

By Michael Kaplen

Following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), patients should be given nutritional supplementation through a gastric feeding tube as soon as possible.  A new study by researchers at New York-Prebyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center found that this simple intervention can improve chances of survival by as much as four-fold.

The study authors have called for an change in guidelines used in the care of patients with TBI to incorporate these findings.

This is the largest study to ever look at the issue of nutrition and survival following TBI.

The researchers found that the earlier each patient received a feeding-tube, and the more calories they ingested, the better their likelihood for survival.  The best outcomes for patients with TBI were observed when patients received a minimum of 25kcal/kg each day.

Alarmingly, the researchers found that as many as 62 percent of the patients studied never met this level of caloric intake.

The study is published in this month's issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery. (ANI)

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on July 05, 2008 (boomark / email).