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[Enteral nutrition in acute pancreatitis]
Abstract:
The metabolism of acute pancreatitis is characterized by hypermetabolism and catabolism. Evidence for glucose intolerance occurs in anywhere from 40 to 90% of cases and urine urea nitrogen may increase up to 40 g/day. The most important aspect when considering nutritional therapy is determining the severity of the pancreatitis. The APACHE-II-scoring-system and the time honored Ranson criteria are useful for differentiating severe from mild pancreatitis. Despite some limitations in sensitivity and specificity, studies have suggested that patients with 2 or less Ranson criteria and an APACHE-II-score of 9 or less have mild pancreatitis, while patients with 3 or more Ranson criteria and an APACHE-II-score of 10 or more have severe pancreatitis. Evidence of organ failure on clinical presentation and pancreatic necrosis on dynamic CT scan are also important factors in determining severity of pancreatitis and are probably the two major indicators of patient outcome. Only 3 prospective randomized controlled trials have compared enteral to parenteral nutrition for pancreatitis. All studies described successful use of enteral feeding without exacerbating the disease process although a mild stimulation of exocrine pancreatic secretion could not be prevented, even when the tube was placed below the ligament of Treitz. Kalfarentzos [11] and McClave [14] could show that hyperglycemia was worse in the parenteral feeding patients compared to the enteral feeding group and Windsor [24] concluded with respect to the results of his study, that enteral feeding modulates the inflammatory response in acute pancreatitis. Conclusions regarding the use of enteral or parenteral nutrition in acute pancreatitis are difficult to form, as there is a need of more prospective studies. As ileus may be a problem in patients with greater severity of pancreatitis, limiting the application of early enteral feeding, the route of nutritional support should be determined by the clinical course and the severity of the disease.