Terapia de nutrição enteral em pacientes hospitalizados com COVID-19: uma revisão

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic began on December, 2019, when an outbreak of pneumonia was reported in Wuhan City, China. In a short time, the pathogen was identified and named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and this virus causes Coronavirus 2019 Disease (COVID-19). In Brazil, 39% of hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). These patients were at increased risk of malnutrition due to increased metabolic needs associated with a state of acute inflammation. In this scenario, the early start of nutritional therapy (NT) promotes numerous advantages for the hospitalized patient, such as an improvement in the immune response, a reduction of clinical complications, as well as reductions in costs, length of stay and even on the mortality rate. In order to produce a theoretical framework that contributes to a better understanding of NT and its use in patients with COVID-19, an integrative review was carried out. Methods: To this end, a search was performed in the CAPES, PubMed, Lilacs and Medline databases, using descriptors and free terms referring to enteral nutrition and COVID-19. Resultads: From a total of 167 articles, 12 manuscripts that specifically addressed the clinical and nutritional management of patients with COVID-19 or the use of enteral nutrition in patients with COVID-19 were selected. Conclusion: From these articles, nutritional approaches in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 were identified, such as the choice of the nutritional assessment and screening method, management of health professionals in the care of these patients, the nutritional consequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as nutritional therapy choices regarding enteral diet, composition and influence of macro and micronutrients in the evolution of patients with COVID-19.