Basics in Clinical Medical Nutrition.

Nutrition is a basic requirement for life and plays an important role in health and in disease prevention, but malnutrition is a common event and a cause of increased morbidity and mortality, particularly in patients with disease-related malnutrition showing inflammation and a catabolic state. Malnutrition is often overlooked, and deterioration in the nutritional status following admission to hospital is common. It should be actively pursued by a ubiquitous system of nutrition screening, and full nutritional assessment is required for those found to be at risk.

Nutrition in pancreatic diseases.

The pancreas plays a major role in nutrient digestion. Therefore, in both acute and chronic pancreatitis, exocrine and endocrine pancreatic insufficiency can develop, impairing digestive and absorptive processes. These changes can lead to malnutrition over time.