Influence of early post-burn enteral nutrition on clinical outcomes of patients with extensive burns

Sepsis commonly occurs in severe post-burn patients, often resulting in death. We aimed to evaluate the influence of early enteral feeding on outcomes in patients with extensive burns, including infection incidence, healing and mortality. We retrospectively reviewed 60 patients with extensive burns, 35 who had received early enteral nutrition and 25 who had received parenteral nutrition. Average healing time, infection incidence and mortality were clinically observed. Hemoglobin and serum albumin were monitored weekly in both groups during treatment. Causative organisms were identified in patients with sepsis. Infection incidence was significantly less in the enteral nutrition group than the parenteral nutrition group (17.1% vs 44.0%; p = 0.023); and latency duration was longer in the enteral nutrition group than in the parenteral nutrition group (30.5 ± 4.7 days vs 14.5 ± 2.3 days; p<0.001). Duration of antibiotic therapy of the enteral nutrition group was significantly shorter than that of the parenteral nutrition group (12.5 ± 3.0 days vs 19.8 ± 3.6 days; p<0.001). Mean hemoglobin results (10.1 ± 1.3 g/L vs 8.3 ± 1.5 g/L; p<0.001) and serum albumin results (44.7 ± 5.7 g/L vs 36.2 ± 6.9 g/L; p<0.001) of enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition groups, respectively, provided an overview of systemic nutrition and protein metabolism, suggesting higher systemic nutrition and protein synthesis in enteral nutrition group than in parenteral nutrition group. Risk of post-burn infection is reduced in burn patients who are supported by earliest possible enteral nutrition.