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Sarcopenia and length of hospital stay. Is this a vicious cycle?

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 70, page 863 (2016)Cite this article

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We read the article entitled ‘Sarcopenia and length of hospital stay’ written by Sousa et al.1 with great interest. First of all, the study is well designed and written, and also the major findings of the study are extremely valuable. The concept of sarcopenia has been discussed in the literature for almost one decade, and the highest-risk population for this novel concept are older adults. However, the knowledge of sarcopenia in younger adults is lacking in the literature. Therefore, we think that the findings of the recent article showing that younger adults have a higher rate of sarcopenia than expected and those younger adults with sarcopenia have longer length of hospital stay are remarkable and shed light on further investigations into this area.

On the other hand, we know that the patients, especially those hospitalized, are at risk of developing sarcopenia when staying in the hospital. For example, if an older adult stays in a hospital for 10 days of bed rest, this person may lose approximately 10% of muscle mass irreversibly.2 It means that there is a vicious circle between sarcopenia and length of hospital stay.

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References

  1. Sousa AS, Guerra RS, Fonseca I, Pichel F, Amaral TF . Sarcopenia and length of hospital stay. Eur J Clin Nutr 2015, e-pub ahead of print 16 December 2015 doi:10.1038/ejcn.2015.207.

  2. Kortebein P, Ferrando A, Lombeida J, Wolfe R, Evans WJ . Effect of 10 days of bed rest on skeletal muscle in healthy older adults. JAMA 2007; 297: 1772–1774.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    M C Kizilarslanoglu, M K Kilic, R T Dogrul, F Sumer, H D Varan, M E Kuyumcu, Y Yesil & M Halil

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  1. M C Kizilarslanoglu
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  2. M K Kilic
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  3. R T Dogrul
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  4. F Sumer
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  5. H D Varan
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  6. M E Kuyumcu
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  7. Y Yesil
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  8. M Halil
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Correspondence to M C Kizilarslanoglu.

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Kizilarslanoglu, M., Kilic, M., Dogrul, R. et al. Sarcopenia and length of hospital stay. Is this a vicious cycle?. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 863 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.16

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