Hyponatremia among patients with total enteral tube feeding: prevalence and associated clinical factors

Abstract

Introduction: hyponatremia is the most frequent disturbance in hospitalized patients. This situation may influence the therapeutic approach in patients with total enteral tube feeding (TEN). Objective: to study the prevalence of hyponatremia and the clinical factors that are associated with increased risk in a population with TEN. Methods: a retrospective study from January 2014 to January 2020; 1,651 non-critically ill patients receiving TEN were included who were assessed by the Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition. Data collected included sex, age, body mass index (BMI) (kg/m2), and nutritional status by Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA); main disease diagnosis and development of hyponatremia at onset or during TEN were also included. Results: in all, 53.9 % of the total sample were males aged 76.8 [65.7-85.3] years. Neurological pathology was the most frequent primary diagnosis on admission (37.3 %). We found hyponatremia in 26.1 % —11.0 % at onset and 16.7 % during TEN—. Hyponatremia was more frequent in patients with digestive disease (28.7 %) and infectious disease (27.65 %). According to the MNA questionnaire 41.1 % were malnourished and nutritional status was worse in patients with hyponatremia (76.3 % vs. 55.8 %; p < 0.001). By multivariate analysis, malnutrition was only associated with hyponatremia status; OR, 2.86 [95 % CI: 1.5-4.88]. Conclusions: in this study, hyponatremia was detected in a third of patients. This was up to two more times as common in malnourished patients; however, age, sex, BMI, and baseline pathology were not related.