NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF NEONATES WITH CONGENITAL HEART PATH ADMITTED TO A NEONATAL ICU (Atena Editora)

Abstract

Introduction: Congenital heart anomalies are the most common among severe congenital malformations and present high mortality in the first year of life. Newborns admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are patients at nutritional risk, who require intensive monitoring. Objective: To verify the nutritional status of newborns with congenital heart disease admitted to the Neonatal ICU of a cardiology reference hospital. Methodology: The study was retrospective, quantitative and descriptive, being carried out with newborns admitted to a Neonatal ICU from January to August 2021 at a reference hospital in cardiology in the city of Belém/PA. The study included patients of both sexes, with a diagnosis of congenital heart disease recorded in the medical record. Results and Discussion: The study involved a sample of 31 newborns, of which 54.8% were male (n=17) and 45.2% female (n=14). It was found that according to BMI/I, 77.6% were eutrophic (n=24), 12.8% were at risk of overweight (n=4), 6.4% were thin (n=2) and 3.2% overweight (n=1). It is important to highlight that although the majority of newborns with heart disease are eutrophic at the time of hospital admission and at birth, many lose significant weight during hospitalization, which can be influenced by factors such as: type of heart disease, presence of cyanosis, surgery, as well as such as length of stay. Final considerations: To carry out nutritional assessment of newborns with heart disease admitted to neonatal ICUs is very important, as it allows the establishment of appropriate nutritional goals for each case according to the clinical conditions, minimizing the metabolic consequences inherent to the heart disease itself.