Estado nutricional de pacientes pós-doença encefalovascular

Abstract

Assessing the nutritional status of individuals is important once nutritional diagnosis allows the prescription of nutritional support that is adequate to a person s particular needs. Malnutrition in stroke patients is multifactorial and one of the aspects that contributes for malnutrition conditions is dysphagia. The objective of this study was to assess the nutritional status of stroke patients admitted to the School Hospital of the Federal University at Santa Maria (HUSM). Thirty-seven stroke patients aged 67,7 ± 13,8 yr (average ± standard deviation) participated in the research. For nutrional status estimation, athropometric measurements (weight, height, body mass index, skinfold thickness, and circumferences) and biolectrical impedance analysis were used. Data from patients medical file such as associated diseases, dysphagia diagnosis, phonoaudiological assessment, feeding via, and prescribed diet were also considered. The results of nutritional assessment revealed that: 90% of the patients presented severe weight loss; 22% were underweight according to the body mass index proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO); 79% were underweight according to the body mass index for the elderly; 33% presented high depletion in arm cincumference; 27% presented high depletion in arm muscle circumference; 30% presented defficiency of corrected arm muscle area, 5% were below the fifth percentile for arm fat area; 73% presented depletion of triceps skinfold thickness; 60% were below the tenth percentile for fat mass percentage; 24% were below the tenth percentile for fat free mass; and all patientes were below the fifth percentile for phase angle. It can be concluded that most patients were not diagnosed for dysphagia, there was high incidence of malnutrotion according to the assessed data; and lack of diagnosis and treatment for dysphagia may have contributed to the high malnutrition status observed.