A scoping review on nutritional intake and nutritional status in people with a major dysvascular lower limb amputation

PurposeTo systematically review literature on nutritional intake, nutritional status and nutritional interventions, and to study their association with short- and long-term clinical outcomes in people with a major dysvascular lower limb amputation.MethodsPubMed, Ovid, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Library were searched. Studies were included if nutritional intake, nutritional status, or nutritional interventions in people with a major dysvascular lower limb amputation were analyzed.ResultsOf the 3038 unique papers identified, 30 studies were included. Methodological quality was moderate (1 study) or weak (29 studies). Limited information was available on nutritional intake (2 studies) and nutritional interventions (1 study). Nutritional intake and nutritional status were assessed by diverse methods. The percentage of people with a poor nutritional status ranged from 1% to 100%. In some studies, measures of poor nutritional status were associated with adverse short- and long-term clinical outcomes.ConclusionsThe percentage of people with a poor nutritional status is inconclusive in the major dysvascular lower limb amputation population, because of the heterogeneity of the assessment methods used. Some included studies reported a negative association between poor nutritional status and clinical outcomes. However, these results should be interpreted with caution, because of the limited quality of the studies available. Studies high in methodological quality and high in hierarchy of evidence are needed.

Automated summary

This literature review examined the relationship between nutritional intake, nutritional status, and nutritional interventions with short- and long-term clinical outcomes in individuals with major dysvascular lower limb amputation. The results showed that there is no conclusive evidence on the percentage of individuals with poor nutritional status due to the heterogeneity of assessment methods. Some studies reported a negative association between poor nutritional status and clinical outcomes, but the limited quality of available studies calls for caution in interpreting these results. High-quality studies with strong evidence hierarchy are needed.