University of Medical Sciences of Havana. Faculty of Medical Sciences 10 de Octubre. Havana, Cuba.
Introduction: Acute neurological diseases often lead to deterioration of the level of consciousness or of the swallowing mechanisms, for which it is essential to receive nutritional support from the ICU, even during their subsequent return home. Objective: To describe the benefits of nutrition for neurocritical patients. Materials and Methods: A bibliographic search was carried out using the keywords (nutrition) AND (neurocritical patient), (enteral nutrition) AND (neurocritical patient) and (nutrition) AND (cranioencephalic trauma) in the Scielo, Pubmed, Scopus databases. , Wiley & Sons, Clinical Keys, and ISI Web of Science. Development: the relationship between nutritional status and the benefit of early therapy is based on a series of mechanisms triggered by the marked metabolic response to trauma and cellular changes, these promote a greater inflammatory response, which can provide a neuroprotective effect or cause more damage. Conclusions: It is important to start an early nutritional process in neurocritical patients through enteral nutrition, fundamentally with the aim of covering all the nutritional needs of the patient without the need to add other nutrients, since these formulas include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins.
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