Intestinal failure is a condition characterised by the reduction of gut function below the minimum level required for the absorption of nutrients and/or water and electrolytes, which must be supplemented intravenously to maintain health and/or growth. The aim of this study is to introduce indirect calorimetry as a method that allows more accurate planning and monitoring of nutritional therapy in Slovenian patients with intestinal failure. Our study is the first in Slovenia to use indirect calorimetry as part of the standard outpatient treatment of patients with intestinal failure in a centre for the treatment of intestinal failure. We included 20 stable patients with type III intestinal failure (chronic intestinal failure) receiving partial or total parenteral nutrition and 20 healthy volunteers. Patients were divided into 3 clinical groups according to the type of energy intake. We used Q-NRG® indirect calorimeter from Cosmed manufacturer to measure resting energy expenditure. We found that there was no statistically significant difference in measured resting energy expenditure between stable patients with type III intestinal failure and healthy volunteers (p-value > 0.05). However, in patients with type III intestinal failure, there is a statistically significant difference between measured resting energy expenditure and actual energy intake (p-value = 0.013), which varies greatly between individuals (SD ± 691 kcal), which might be related to the degree of intestinal failure. However, we could not detect any difference in resting energy expenditure between clinical groups of patients (p-value > 0.05).
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