Nutritional Therapy in Hospital Care of In-patients with COVID-19: What
we know so far?
Abstract
Prior to March 2020, publications involving COVID-19 and nutrition were
scarce. After six months of spreading of the infection, clinical trials
involving nutritional therapy are still scarce; however consensuses
built on the experiences of specialists are relevant for the development
of guidelines. Thus, the main objective of this publication is to
present the knowledge, to this date, that underlies nutritional therapy
in hospital care for COVID-19 in-patients. As a final consideration, it
should be pointed out the consensus that has been built from the
experience of specialists that all precautions must be taken for the
safety of the team and the inpatients, whether in the clinic or in the
intensive care units and that in the current absence of specific
recommendations, generic protocols be adopted; also nutritional care of
these patients should be given priority as an important condition for
the positive outcome of each case. Another recommendation in order to
generate evidence so that more specific protocols be adopted, is the
careful recording of the procedures used and that research protocols be
established as well as multicenter studies in order to accelerate
investigations, which results can be promptly applied in clinical
practice.