Introduction: Refeeding syndrome represents a severe electrolyte disturbance and metabolic abnormalities in malnourished patients after the start of refeeding, after a period of starvation. It is often left undiagnosed which is dangerous, as the refeeding syndrome can be a life-threatening condition. Purpose: The purpose of this work is to present the latest guidelines for the assessment, treatment and prevention of SPH. Methods: A descriptive method of working with a review of the literature was used. The search for literature took place via the web portal of the Digital Library of the University of Ljubljana in the international online databases Medline / PubMed, Cinahl, Cochrane Library and with the help of the catalog database COBIS.SI. Five articles were included in the final analysis. Results: The presented results of five high-quality articles by hierarchy of evidence focus mainly on patients with eating disorders and older adults due to chronic medical conditions in a hospital setting. Two articles relate the assessment of refeeding syndrome using the marker insulin-like growth factor and a machine learning model for predicting hypophosphatemia. They concluded that both methods are effective for predicting risk before restarting parenteral nutrition. Three articles, however, describe the methods of adequate nutritional therapy of malnourished patients with repeated oral and enteral feeding. High energy food intake does not increase the incidence of refeeding syndrome or mortality in these patients. The incidence of refeeding syndrome and the occurrence of hypophosphatemia are not influenced by high or low caloric food intake. They concluded that high caloric food intake can be made safe by supplementing thiamine, monitoring the patient's serum potassium, phosphate, and fluid requirements. Parenteral food intake should be calculated according to the patient's needs and recommended daily energy intake. Discussion and conclusion: Screening tests for signs and symptoms of refeeding syndrome are imprecise, making diagnosing patients difficult. In order to identify patients at risk for refeeding syndrome, it is necessary to raise awareness among healthcare professionals about the severity of the medical problem in patients at risk for refeeding syndrome. Protocols aimed at preventing and effectively managing refeeding syndrome are still a major challenge for quality medical care of malnourished patients.
|