Nutritional support team system may prolong survival in patients with sepsis

A multidisciplinary nutritional support team (NST) can help improve the survival outcomes in patients with sepsis, according to a study. Such improvements are more pronounced in those aged ≥65 years who were admitted to the ICU.

This nationwide population-based cohort study was conducted in South Korea involving sepsis patients admitted to hospitals from 2016 to 2020. The NST consisted of four professional personnel, namely physicians, full-time nurses, full-time pharmacists, and full-time clinical dietitians.

Participants were categorized into two cohorts: the NST group (patients with sepsis admitted to a hospital with an NST system) and the non-NST group (those admitted without an NST system).

The final analysis included 323,841 patients with sepsis, of whom 120,274 (37.1 percent) were admitted to a hospital with an NST system.

Multivariate analysis revealed a 15-percent lower 90-day mortality in the NST group than the non-NST group (hazard ratio [HR], 0.85, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.83–0.86; p<0.001). All-cause mortality was also lower by 11 percent in the NST versus non-NST group (HR, 0.89, 95 percent CI, 0.87–0.90; p<0.001).

Subgroup analyses revealed that patients aged ≥65 years who were admitted to the ICU benefitted most from NST in terms of 90-day mortality.

“The South Korean government implemented a multidisciplinary NST system to focus on the proper evaluation and supply of nutritional status in hospitalized patients who are at a higher risk of malnutrition,” the authors said.