Introduction: The presence of malnutrition is connected with the significantly higher mortality and morbidity. Its early detection is very important for the institution of nutrition intervention that has favourable impact on patient's prognosis. The nutrition screening is the simple and fast way of nutrition risk assessment. The aim of our study was to evaluate the relation of the modified Nutrition Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002) with mortality of patients admitted to metabolic intensive care unit (MICU) in prospective study.
Methods: Nutrition screening has been examined in all the patients admitted to MICU over half year period since January till June 2006. According to the screening result the patients were divided into three groups: with low, moderate and high nutrition risk. The relation of nutrition screening result with mortality in MICU was statistically evaluated.
Results: Data of 291 patients admitted to MICU have been collected. The modified nutrition screening revealed low risk in 130 (45%), moderate risk in 111 (38%) and high nutrition risk in 50 (17%) patients. 28 patients (9.6%) died during stay in MICU. 3 patients (2.3%) with low, 10 (9%) with moderate and 15 (30%) with high nutrition risk passed away in MICU (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: The significant relation between the grade of nutrition risk evaluated by modified NRS 2002 and mortality in MICU has been found in our study.