Nutritional management of patients with severe liver disease by using intravenous hyperalimentation and elemental diet

Abstract

Management of protein-calorie malnutrition found in 32 patients with severe liver diseases such as fulminant hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver was carried out using 2 types of synthetic amino acid solution (Hep-OU and Fischer solution) for intravenous and enteral alimentations with rapid monitoring of serum aminogram. Intravenous hyperalimentation of these cases resulted in maintenance of nutritional status with improvement of nitrogen balance and normalization of impaired serum aminogram. During this study, however, nutritional support was initiated only when intractable ascites, upper gastrointestinal bleeding and hepatic encephalopathy were observed. In 2 cases of fulminant hepatitis with sepsis and 3 hepatoma patients with ascites, elemental diet containing maltose and amino acids was used to supply sufficient amounts of nutrients in a minimum volume of water. These techniques with simultaneous monitoring of urinary excretion of 3-methylhistidine and creatinine height index as nutritional parameters make nutritional management easy for patients with liver disease.