Nutritional Status in HPN Patients
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation and Assessment of Nutritional Status in Home Parenteral Nutrition (HPN) Patients
IRAS ID
169411
Contact name
Sean Rhys Dodington
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Parenteral nutrition (PN) is the provision of nutrients intravenously. It is used for people who are intolerant of, or cannot receive adequate nutrition orally, for example patients with short bowel syndrome or Crohn’s disease. PN can contain over 60 individual components, including lipid, amino acids, glucose, electrolytes, minerals, vitamins and water and each mixture must be tailored to meet the needs of the patient. Depending on their condition, some people receive PN for relatively short periods, but others rely on it for their whole life. Long term users administer their PN at home (home parenteral nutrition (HPN)), and it is estimated that there are currently approximately 800 HPN patients in the UK.
Patients receiving long term PN are at risk of acquiring nutritional deficiencies and clinicians involved in the care of these patients need to be aware of these risks and how to manage them. Since the end of the 1990’s, it has been recognised that there is a lack of information about how these deficiencies occur and their clinical significance. Much of the research that has been performed over subsequent years has been difficult to place in clinical context. It is generally accepted that the longer a patient receives a set PN “recipe” (formula), the higher the risk that the formula will not match their nutritional needs.
This is the first project aiming to analyse clinically documented data for a large sample of patients receiving long term PN. The data, including patients’ medical history, biochemical blood test results and PN prescription details, will be analysed to find out how the extent of any deficiencies and to relate this back to the PN received.
REC name
Wales REC 7
REC reference
15/WA/0128
Date of REC Opinion
8 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion