The association between enteral feeding with survival of critical
patients with COVID-19 patients
Abstract
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) results in several
complications and mortality in ICU patients. The effect of enteral
nutrition on the survival of COVID-19 patients in the ICU has been
investigated in limited instances. The aim of this study is to
investigate the association of enteral feeding with biochemical and
pathological indices associated with mortality in COVID-19 patients.
Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 240 patients with
COVID-19 hospitalized in the ICU including 120 eventually dead patients
as the cases and 120 discharged patients as the controls. All of the
patients received enteral nutrition. Data on general information,
anthropometric measurements, and the results of lab tests were
collected. Results: The recovered patients received significantly more
high protein (60.8% vs. 39.6%, P=0.004) and high volume (61.6% vs.
vs. 42.3%, P=0.005) formula compared to the dead patients. Mortality
was inversely associated with high volume (OR:0.45 CI95%, P=0.008) and
high protein formula (OR:0.42 CI95%, P=0.003). The results remained
significant after adjusting for age and sex. Further adjustment for
underlying diseases and smoking, BMI, and APACHII did not change the
results. Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that there was a
significant inverse association between mortality and high volume and
high protein formula in COVID-19 patients that warrants further
investigation.