Evaluation of effects of nutrition intervention on healing of pressure ulcers and nutritional states (randomized controlled trial)

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of nutrition intervention on nutritional states and healing of pressure ulcers by standardizing or unified factors including nursing, care and treatment in a multicenter open randomized trial. Tube-fed patients with Stage III-IV pressure ulcers were selected. The control group (30 patients) received the same nutrition management as before participating in this trial, whereas the intervention group (30 patients) was given calories in the range of Basal Energy Expenditure (BEE) x 1.1 x 1.3 to 1.5. The intervention period was 12 weeks. The efficacy and safety were evaluated based on the nutritional states and the sizes of ulcers (length x width), and on the incidence of adverse events related to the study, respectively. The calories administered to the control and intervention groups were 29.1 +/- 4.9 and 37.9 +/- 6.5 kcal/kg/day, respectively. Significant interactions between the presence or absence of the intervention and the intervention period were noted for nutritional states (p < 0.001 for body weight, p < 0.05 for prealbumin). Similarly, the size of ulcers differed significantly between subjects in the intervention group and in the control group (p < 0.001). The results suggest that nutrition intervention could directly enhance the healing process in pressure ulcer patients.