Clinical and epidemiological analysis of severe traumatic brain injury: the role of nutritional support to the injured with a prolonged state of impaired consciousness

Relevance. Patients with prolonged impaired consciousness due to traumatic brain injury are the most difficult category of patients in inpatient medical rehabilitation units. Despite the experience gained in managing this complex category of patients, the problem of nutrition status and trophological insufficiency, as well as practical issues regarding the organization of optimal nutrition at this stage of medical rehabilitation remain unresolved.

Intention. To study the role of nutritional support for patients with long-term impaired consciousness on the basis of a clinical and epidemiological analysis of severe traumatic brain injury.

Methodology. The data of an epidemiological analysis of traumatic brain injuries and features of ongoing nutritional support in patients with long-term impaired consciousness are presented, based on a study of domestic and foreign publications from 2005 to 2019.

Results and Discussion. Timely and adequate nutritional support optimizes the structural-functional and metabolic systems of the body, adaptive reserves interfere with rapidly progressive depletion and chronic catabolic processes, contribute to positive changes in the functional state of the brain, reduce infectious complications, and increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures and the rate of recovery of consciousness.

Conclusion. The analysis revealed the ambiguity of the interpreted data on clinical recommendations and approaches to the use of nutritional support in patients with long-term impaired consciousness due to traumatic brain injury. Considering the fact that in most cases such patients need continuous long-term comprehensive rehabilitation measures, accompanied by significant energy costs of the body, an essential component of the rehabilitation process, in our opinion, is the inclusion of adequate nutritional support that prevents fast-progressing exhaustion and chronic catabolic processes. In this regard, such an urgent task is to optimize the algorithms of nutritional support in patients with long-term impaired consciousness after a traumatic brain injury, the solution of which will improve the functional state of the brain and, therefore, the rehabilitation prognosis and quality of their life.

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