Nutritional outcome of patients undergoing orotracheal intubation or tracheostomy in the ICU: A cohort study

Abstract

Orotracheal intubation and tracheostomy are recurrent procedures in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), so it is important to know the outcome of the oral diet after these procedures. A quantitative and qualitative cohort study was carried out with retrospective data and information collected by convenience from the records of the Nutrition and Speech Therapy departments at the Regional Hospital of Cacoal - RO. The project was approved by the CEP under approval number 6.038.523. Of the 464 patients admitted over a period of 150 days, 28 were included in the final study, 14 men and 14 women aged between 16 and 83, of whom 22 underwent orotracheal intubation and 6 tracheostomy. When they were assessed by the speech therapy team and classified using the PARD scale, it was observed that the majority of patients with some degree of dysphagia were aged 55 or over or had been intubated for at least 7 days or had undergone a tracheostomy. As for the satisfactory evolution of the oral diet, it was observed that the majority of those who required regression had a loss of muscle mass measured by calf circumference of more than 5%. In conclusion, age, intubation time and the use of a tracheostomy may be associated with the incidence of dysphagia, and it is also worth noting that the loss of muscle mass had an impact on the evolution of patients' oral diet.