Malnutrición hospitalaria: etiología y criterios para su diagnóstico y clasificación

Abstract

Hospital malnutrition (undernutrition) is of high prevalence in the world having reported up to 30-50%. Unlike the one observed in public health, this is characterized by the activation and installation of the inflammatory response in an acute or chronic manner, and an attenuated response to nutritional support. That is why traditional parameters for the diagnosis of malnutrition in public health such as albumin have failed in its application in the clinical area and forced to rethink the criteria used for the diagnosis of hospital malnutrition from this new perspective. Both the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) as well as the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) and subsequently the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN, for its acronym in English) have issued consensus for the diagnosis and classification of hospital malnutrition. Recently, the global malnutrition leadership initiative (GLIM), based on these consensus, has proposed a new classification from a more global approach. This article reviews this and other concepts around this topic.