| [ Summary ] |
Control of salt, water, potassium, phosphate, protein and energy intake is essential for nutritional management of maintenance dialysis patients. Protein-energy wasting (PEW) may occur in cases involving insufficient energy intake. Phosphate intake is closely correlated with protein intake. Unintentional low nutrient intake contributing to PEW is primarily caused by anorexia in elderly dialysis patients.
The age of incident dialysis patients has recently increased. Nearly half of the patients who began dialysis treatment in 2015 were over the age of 70. However, the physical, functional, nutritional status and medical condition of elderly patients is variable. Hence, dietary management should be carried out in consideration of the characteristics of individual patients. Therefore, individualized approaches are required for nutritional management of patients receiving maintenance dialysis treatment. For this reason, we propose to classify those patients into three categories ; 1) actively working adults, 2) physically active elderly patients without PEW and 3) physically inactive elderly patients with PEW. |