| [ Summary ] |
Elderly dialysis patients easily become malnourished due to various factors. Nutritional team approaches should be inspected regularly to improve the nutritional status of patients in relation to malnutrition. First, inflammation related malnutrition should be ruled out with CRP analysis. If CRP results are negative, other causes of malnutrition should be verified through careful monitoring of patients’ dietary intake and daily life style. Unsatisfactory dietary intake in elderly patients is caused by various factors such as swallowing dysfunctions, loss of taste, dementia and depressive states. Patient trial-and-error approachs and encouragement is essential to improve these difficult causes. This type of care is often ongoing. If ordinary dietary intake is impossible, enteral alimentation or intra-dialytic parenteral nutrition (IDPN) works well as a substitute. We must understand what our patients really want and respond in a flexible way to changing patient needs. |