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Assessment of standardised parenteral nutrition in paediatrics

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 68, pages 535–536 (2014)Cite this article

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Parenteral nutrition (PN) is a technique used to treat patients who cannot be fully fed by oral and enteral route.1 The nutritional approach in the paediatric age, compared with the adult one, is strongly conditioned by growth, on which the metabolic requirements depend. Whereas a wide variety of standard commercial formulas for PN are used for adult patients, only few paediatric formulas have only just been introduced to the market as recently reported.2, 3 Children requiring PN are fed normally with personalised composition solution prepared mostly in the hospital pharmacy on a daily basis adapted to the patient’s need. Standard commercial formulas have several advantages in terms of safety, by reducing microbiological contamination4, 5 and compounding errors.6, 7 Moreover, using this type of admixture it could decrease the workload at the hospital, resulting in reduced cost and waste.8, 9 The aim of this study is to evaluate the possibility of using PN formulas with a standardised one (commercially or galenic composition) on paediatric patients, ensuring nutritional intake for growth and state of health.

This work was conducted in the Women’s and Child’s Health Department of the Hospital of Padova. With a retrospective study we compared 82 paediatric patients receiving three PN different formulations in three different periods, respectively personalised (IND-PN, between June and November 2009), galenic standardised (PED STD-PN between December 2009 and May 2010) and commercial standardised (COM STD-PN, June to November 2010) solutions. We analysed all in-patients who were fed with PN in presence of central venous catheter and aged 1–18 years. We excluded patients with kidney or liver failures and children with severe congenital or metabolic abnormalities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    F Bigioni & A Bertazzo

  2. Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    G Verlato, P Gaio & L Chiandetti

  3. Azienda Ospedaliera of Padova, Via Giustiniani 3, Padova, Italy

    L De Lorenzi & E Di Lenardo

  4. Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    A C Frigo

Authors
  1. F Bigioni
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  2. G Verlato
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  3. L De Lorenzi
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  4. A C Frigo
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  5. P Gaio
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  6. E Di Lenardo
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  7. A Bertazzo
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  8. L Chiandetti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G Verlato.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Bigioni, F., Verlato, G., De Lorenzi, L. et al. Assessment of standardised parenteral nutrition in paediatrics. Eur J Clin Nutr 68, 535–536 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.291

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2013.291

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