Nutritional assessment and evolution in patients with brain injury in a medium and long-stay hospital

Introduction: Introduction: brain Injury Units (BIU) in medium and long-stay hospitals provide comprehensive multidisciplinary care to patients who require continuity of care after the acute phase of their illness. Objectives: to asses the nutritional status and the evolution of patients admitted to the BIU using morphofunctional assessment criteria. Material and methods / Results: a total of 27 patients were studied, with an average age of 67.63 years and an average stay of 97.8 days. During hospitalization, 5 patients (18.5 %) died. Upon admission, all patients presented some degree of malnutrition according to the Mini Nutritional Assessment short form (MNAsf). After evaluating using the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria, 78 % were malnourished. At discharge, 7.4 % of the evaluated patients were malnourished (p = 0.00). Dysphagia was present in 44.4 % of patients at admission and 7.4 % at discharge. Bioimpedance analysis (BIA) showed that the phase angle (phA) significantly improved between admission and discharge, with an average of 4.3° and 4.5°, respectively. Patients with a phA ≤ 3.1° died. At discharge, nutrition and hydration improved (Nutrigram®, Hydragram®, and appendicular skeletal muscle mass). Strength measured by dynamometry was above the 25th percentile: 56.5 % at admission and 70.6 % at discharge (p = 0.036). Functionality significantly improved according to the Barthel Index (BI), with an average of 19.7 at admission and 46 at discharge (p = 0.00). Conclusion: patients with acquired brain injury suffer significant nutritional and functional deterioration, which improves after multidisciplinary intervention in a BIU. Parameters such as phA appear to be related to prognosis. The main limitation of the study was the small sample size.