What is the nutritional status of patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness? A retrospective cross-sectional study.

Background: Nutritional status of patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) is poorly studied.

Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between nutritional status (body mass index, daily calories intake) and clinical variables (level of consciousness, time since injury, diagnosis, etiology and spastic muscle overactivity; SMO,) in patients with prolonged DoCor emerging. Our main hypotheses are i) patients with lower level of consciousness (UWS) have worse nutritional status compared to patients in minimally conscious state (MCS) and ii) SMO could influence nutritional status.

Methods And Results: Among the 80 patients included in the study (19 UWS, 47 MCS, 14 emerging MCS; 43 ± 15 yo; 3 ± 4 years post-injury, 35 traumatic etiology, 34 females), 9% were at risk to be undernourished, with no differences between UWS and MCS. Patients without SMO had a higher BMI compared to patients with severe SMO. Compared to the recommended daily calories intake, patients with the highest BMI received less calories and patients with the lowest BMI received more calories. We observed a negative correlation between SMO (in lower limbs) and BMI.

Conclusion: Our study shows that most patients are well nourished, independently from the level of consciousness. SMO may require additional calories in patients' daily needs; however, longitudinal studies are needed to explore the causal relationship between these variables.