Introduction
Malnutrition in its various forms is the most common diseases. Its causes are due to weak general economic resources or diseases that compromise the good nutritional status. Under the International Handbook of disease classification is a medical complication but can be prevented and that has major impact on the outcome of therapy.
Today malnutrition is accepted as a common factor in clinical practice that result in an increased length of hospital stay, morbidity and mortality in patients hospitalized due to high risk of complications such as infection, phlebitis, pulmonary embolism, respiratory failure, low fistula healing and that they suffer. As a result, hospital stay and costs of therapy significantly increase.
Nutritional status is normally the result of the balance between what is consumed and what was required, which is determined by the quality and quantity of dietary nutrients and their full utilization in the body.
In recent years he had played down the nutritional assessment of patients, because the parameters so far have not been developed are approved, because in some cases affected by the response to the disease per se, also constitute a cost-benefit important to the patient. But now because of the impact of nutrition on clinical outcome has been increased interest in finding a precise marker of malnutrition.
