A importância da nutrição enteral em cães e gatos: revisão narrativa

Abstract

Nutritional therapy in critically ill patients, regardless of species, plays a key role in the healing process, especially enteral nutrition, which is the best alternative, either by voluntary action of the patient or by tube, being physiological, safe, easy, economical, and that maintains the immunological role of the gastrointestinal tract. Moreover, the presence of food in the intestine is able to stimulate local vascularization, contributing to the growth, repair, and integrity of the intestinal mucosa, preventing ischemia of the intestinal villi, which would be extremely harmful to the patient, since intestinal protection occurs through glycocalyx, enterocytes, defensins, and a constant IgA response that are dependent on blood supply. However, enteral feeding can only be started when the animal is hemodynamically stable, that is, with all the appropriate parameters for its species. Debilitated animals must first undergo therapies aimed at hemodynamic stability. Thus, the objectives of this review were to present an overview of enteral nutrition, showing its importance in the recovery of the critically ill patient, besides the clinical aspects of these patients, associated with complications related to lack of nutrition such as malnutrition and hypermetabolic state, particularly, discussing studies that present clinically the benefits and limitations of it, concluding that enteral nutrition should be the first choice of the veterinarian for patients who are in critical condition but hemodynamically stable, since it maintains the normal physiology of the gastrointestinal tract, corrects nutritional disorders such as malnutrition and hypermetabolism, protects against bacterial translocation, bacteremia and sepsis, improves the immune system, accelerates the healing process, resulting in rapid recovery of these patients.