[Glutamine use for parenteral nutrition in the critically ill patient: effects on morbimortality]

To determine the relationship between adding glutamine dipeptides to parenteral nutrition (PN) and morbimortality in the critically ill patient.

Case-control retrospective study. The cases were patients to whom PN supplemented with 2 g of nitrogen (glutamine) was administered during the period 2001-2004. Controls were patients with PN without glutamine, collected during the year 2000. All included patients had infection defined as the presence of an infectious site plus more than two of the following criteria: leucocytes > 12.000 x 10(6)/L, fever > 38 degrees C, heart rate > 90 bmp, or PCO2 < 31 mmHg. Besides, they had to have prealbumin plasma levels < 15 g/L or albumin levels < 25 g/L, and CRP > 100 mg/L or a fistula. Patients with renal failure, previous dialysis, hepatic encephalopathy, or mixed diet were excluded from the study. Morbimortality variables collected were: hyperglycemia, renal failure, days on PN, days in the ICU, hospitalization days, and mortality.

Two hundred and two patients (75 cases and 127 controls) were included. In the previous univariate analysis no significant differences appeared for independent variables between both groups. In the multivariate analysis, glutamine addition was significantly associated to lower renal failure incidence (OR: 0.28; CI: 0.081.00), lower hyperglycemia (OR: 0.38; CI: 0.19-0.75), less hospitalization days (OR: 0.64; CI: 0.44-0.92), and fewer days in the ICU (OR: 0.64; CI: 0.45-0.93). For the variable "exitus", glutamine addition showed a trend towards inclusion into the model (p = 0.097). About the days on PN, the variable glutamine was not included into the model.

In critically ill patients, adding glutamine to PN leads to quicker recovery and lower incidence of hyperglycemia and renal failure. In view of these results, adding glutamine to PN of particular patients is an effective measure to speed up their recovery and avoid certain complications.