Impact of early enteral nutrition on short term prognosis after acute stroke

We hypothesized that early enteral nutritional support would improve the short term prognosis of acute stroke patients with dysphagia, demonstrated by lower malnutrition rates, lower complication rates, and lower National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores at 90 days post stroke. Nutrition support is an essential element in the care of stroke patients and many studies have investigated the effect of specific nutritional elements on stroke patients. However, few studies have looked at the impact of complete enteral nutrition on Chinese patients with acute stroke. To investigate this, we conducted a randomized controlled trial of 146 patients with acute stroke and dysphagia, among whom 75 were supported with nasogastric nutrition and 71 received family managed nutrition after randomization. Nutritional status, nosocomial infection and mortality rates were recorded on day 21 of hospitalization. Neurological deficits were evaluated by the NIHSS activities of daily living Barthel index (ADLBI) and the modified Rankin scale (mRS) and compared between the two groups. We found that the nasogastric nutrition group had a better nutritional status and reduced nosocomial infection and mortality rates after 21 days compared with patients in the family managed nutrition group. In addition, the nasogastric nutrition group showed a lower score on the NIHSS than the control group. However, the differences in the scores of the ADLBI and the 90 day mRS between the groups were not significant. Taken together, the present study shows that early enteral nutrition support improves the short term prognosis of acute stroke patients with dysphagia.