Acute Medicine | Medical complications following surgery case 05 knowledge A

Refeeding Syndrome
Session Overview
Description
A brief overview on identifying those patients at risk of refeeding syndrome, with reference to NICE guidelines.

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Identify the risk factors for refeeding syndrome

Refeeding syndrome can occur when a previously malnourished patient receives adequate nutrition.

Incidence
In a meta-analysis of hyperalimentation, 34% of patients on an intensive care unit experienced hypophosphataemia soon after feeding was started.

In a study of 10,197 hospitalised patients, the rate of severe hypophosphataemia was 0.43%; malnourished patients were most at risk.

The syndrome is probably under-recognised and under-diagnosed on medical and surgical wards.