Early vs Delayed Parental Nutrition in TBI Patients - Research Proposal Example

Download file to see previous pages Literature search has consistently emphasized the importance of nutritional requirements for patients with Traumatic Brain Injury. However, a review of the literature reveals that such patients are often at risk of gastrointestinal (GI) issues such as decreased motility or gastroparesis hindering enteral nutrition by delaying gastric emptying and subsequent absorption, or therapeutics used to control intracranial pressure (Tucker, 2004), according to the ESPEN guidelines (2009) adopted in UK ICU’s, the use of supplementary early parenteral nutrition is then normally recommended, whereas, the ASPEN guidelines recommends the late initiation of supplementary nutrition when enteral alone, does not meet fully the daily recommended target.

Piper and Rohm (2009), observed that when the patient is given PN 1 week or 7 days after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), such a patient can be said to be receiving Early-PN. Where PN is given after the 8th day, it is termed Late-PN (Wang et al. 2006). As healthcare practitioners and academics continue to contend on which of the two options noted above is most favorable, the researcher has selected this topic and proposes to use both primary and secondary data to conclude which of the two options given as Early-SPN and Late-SPN seems more effective in enhancing early recovery and achieving best outcomes for TBI patients. The literature review will therefore serve as an important first step in secondary data collection in achieving this goal.

Literature Search Strategy and Structure of the Review
Comprehensive literature using the Spider acronym was conducted by the researcher who found it useful to have a structure that prompts the synthesizes of the literature search in a systematic manner addressing, Sample; as larger samples are used in quantitative research, where findings are intended to be generalized; Phenomenon of Interest and quantitative research which identifies the effectiveness of proposed interventions; Design which influences the study robustness, analysis, and findings; Evaluation such as outcomes of interest to be noted and Research type such as quantitative research to be searched for (Dellinger, 2005). ...Download file to see next pages Read More