[Importance of the modern hospital diet in medical practice]

Hospital diet is an essential part of modern therapy in all medical departments. It comprises both the so-called normal diets which are prepared according to modern nutritional knowledge, dietetic foods and the various forms of artificial nutrition (nutrient-defined and chemically defined diets, parenteral and combined nutrition, i.e. enteral and parenteral nutrition). The integration of nutritional therapeutic problems into the treatment of patients requires optimal scientific and practical forms of organisation of nutrition in the clinic. For that purpose, cooperation of clinical, technical, economic and pedagogic divisions is of prime importance. The organisation of patient nutrition in the St. Georg District Hospital in Leipzig is described as a feasible model.