Key Strategies for Optimizing Pediatric Perioperative Nutrition-Insight from a Multidisciplinary Expert Panel

Nutrients. 2023 Mar 3;15(5):1270. doi: 10.3390/nu15051270.

Abstract

Adequate nutrition is an essential factor in healing and immune support in pediatric patients undergoing surgery, but its importance in this setting is not consistently recognized. Standardized institutional nutrition protocols are rarely available, and some clinicians may be unaware of the importance of assessing and optimizing nutritional status. Moreover, some clinicians may be unaware of updated recommendations that call for limited perioperative fasting. Enhanced recovery protocols have been used in adult patients undergoing surgery to ensure consistent attention to nutrition and other support strategies in adult patients before and after surgery, and these are now under evaluation for use in pediatric patients as well. To support better adoption of ideal nutrition delivery, a multidisciplinary panel of experts in the fields of pediatric anesthesiology, surgery, gastroenterology, cardiology, nutrition, and research have gathered and reviewed current evidence and best practices to support nutrition goals in this setting.

Keywords: nutrition therapy; nutritional assessment; nutritional status.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena*
  • Fasting
  • Gastrointestinal Tract
  • Humans
  • Nutritional Status*
  • Nutritional Support / methods
  • Perioperative Care / methods

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Service Program (IK2 RX002348 to K.N.P.S.). Abbott Nutrition and Abbott Nutrition Health Institute provided funding for the organization of the Expert Meeting that resulted in this publication. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.