Stanislaw Klek1, Adam Hermanowicz1, Grzegorz Dziwiszek1, Konrad Matysiak1, Kinga Szczepanek1, Piotr Szybinski1, Aleksander Galas1. 1. From Stanley Dudrick's Memorial Hospital, General and Oncology Surgery Unit, Skawina, Poland (SK, KS, and PS); the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland (AH); the Home Enteral Nutrition Unit, Stomed, Ostroleka, Poland (GD); Gastroenterology and Oncology and Plastic Surgery, Medical University of Poznan, Poznan, Poland (KM); and Jagiellonian University Medical College, Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Department of Epidemiology, Krakow, Poland (AG).
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Home enteral nutrition (HEN) has always been recognized as a life-saving procedure, but with the ongoing economic crisis influencing health care, its cost-effectiveness has been questioned recently. OBJECTIVE: The unique reimbursement situation in Poland enabled the otherwise ethically unacceptable, hence unavailable, comparison of the period of no-feeding and long-term feeding and the subsequent analyses of the clinical value of the latter and its cost-effectiveness. DESIGN: The observational multicenter study in the group of 456 HEN patients [142 children: 55 girls and 87 boys, mean (±SD) age 8.7 ± 5.9 y; 314 adults: 151 women and 163 men, mean age 59.3 ± 19.8 y] was performed between January 2007 and July 2013. Two 12-mo periods were compared. During the first period, patients were tube fed a homemade diet and were not monitored; during the other period, patients received HEN. HEN included tube feeding and complex monitoring by a nutrition support team. The number of complications, hospital admissions, length of hospital stay, biochemical and anthropometric variables, and costs of hospitalization were compared. RESULTS: Implementation of HEN enabled weight gain and stabilized liver function in both age groups, but it hardly influenced the other tests. HEN implementation reduced the incidence of infectious complications (37.4% compared with 14.9%; P < 0.001, McNemar test), the number of hospital admissions [1.98 ± 2.42 (mean ± SD) before and 1.26 ± 2.18 after EN; P < 0.001, Wilcoxon's signed-rank test], and length of hospital stay (39.7 ± 71.9 compared with 11.9 ± 28.5 d; P < 0.001, Wilcoxon's signed-rank test). The mean annual costs ($) of hospitalization were reduced from 6500.20 ± 10,402.69 to 2072.58 ± 5497.00. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that HEN improves clinical outcomes and decreases health care costs. It was impossible, however, to determine precisely which factor mattered more: the artificial diet itself or the introduction of complex care.
BACKGROUND: Home enteral nutrition (HEN) has always been recognized as a life-saving procedure, but with the ongoing economic crisis influencing health care, its cost-effectiveness has been questioned recently. OBJECTIVE: The unique reimbursement situation in Poland enabled the otherwise ethically unacceptable, hence unavailable, comparison of the period of no-feeding and long-term feeding and the subsequent analyses of the clinical value of the latter and its cost-effectiveness. DESIGN: The observational multicenter study in the group of 456 HEN patients [142 children: 55 girls and 87 boys, mean (±SD) age 8.7 ± 5.9 y; 314 adults: 151 women and 163 men, mean age 59.3 ± 19.8 y] was performed between January 2007 and July 2013. Two 12-mo periods were compared. During the first period, patients were tube fed a homemade diet and were not monitored; during the other period, patients received HEN. HEN included tube feeding and complex monitoring by a nutrition support team. The number of complications, hospital admissions, length of hospital stay, biochemical and anthropometric variables, and costs of hospitalization were compared. RESULTS: Implementation of HEN enabled weight gain and stabilized liver function in both age groups, but it hardly influenced the other tests. HEN implementation reduced the incidence of infectious complications (37.4% compared with 14.9%; P < 0.001, McNemar test), the number of hospital admissions [1.98 ± 2.42 (mean ± SD) before and 1.26 ± 2.18 after EN; P < 0.001, Wilcoxon's signed-rank test], and length of hospital stay (39.7 ± 71.9 compared with 11.9 ± 28.5 d; P < 0.001, Wilcoxon's signed-rank test). The mean annual costs ($) of hospitalization were reduced from 6500.20 ± 10,402.69 to 2072.58 ± 5497.00. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that HEN improves clinical outcomes and decreases health care costs. It was impossible, however, to determine precisely which factor mattered more: the artificial diet itself or the introduction of complex care.
Authors: Marcin Folwarski; Stanislaw Klek; Michał Brzeziński; Agnieszka Szlagatys-Sidorkiewicz; Adam Wyszomirski; Jarosław Meyer-Szary; Karolina Skonieczna-Żydecka Journal: Front Nutr Date: 2022-05-30
Authors: Érica Patrícia Cunha Rosa Schmitz; Eliziane Costa da Silva; Ozeas de Lima Lins Filho; Margarida Maria de Castro Antunes; Kátia Galeão Brandt Journal: Rev Paul Pediatr Date: 2021-09-01