A preliminary controlled clinical study on the sequential enteral nutritional therapy in severe traumatic brain injury

Objective: Our purpose was to explore and discuss the strategies,feasibility,and clinical effect of sequential enteral nutritional therapy in severe traumatic brain injury. Methods: The severe traumatic brain injury patients meeting the criteria were randomly divided into research group and control group. According to the operation process,30 cases in the research group underwent sequential enteral nutritional therapy which transformed gradually from short-peptide to total-protein enteral nutrition,while 29 cases of control group underwent total-protein enteral nutrition only. The data of two groups,including the time to target amount of enteral nutrition,proportion of necessary combined parenteral nutrition,hypoproteinemia rate,feeing-associated complications,and average hospitalization,was recorded and compared. Results: Patients could achieve the target amount of enteral nutrition in both groups,but in the research group,the time to target amount was shorter( P 0. 05),the proportion of combined parenteral nutrition was lower( P 0. 05),the albumin level was higher( P 0. 05),and the rate of abdominal distention was lower( P 0. 05). There was no statistical significance in the rate of other feeing-associated complications and the average hospitalization. Conclusion: The sequential enteral nutritional therapy initiating with short-peptide enteral nutrition can be applied as a recommended strategy in traumatic brain injury patients with malabsorption.