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Background: The Practical guideline is based on the current scientific ESPEN guideline on Clinical Nutrition in Liver Disease., Methods: It has been shortened and transformed into flow charts for easier use in clinical practice. The guideline is dedicated to all professionals including physicians, dieticians, nutritionists and nurses working with patients with chronic liver disease., Results: A total of 103 statements and recommendations are presented with short commentaries for the nutritional and metabolic management of patients with (i) acute liver failure, (ii) alcoholic steatohepatitis, (iii) non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, (iv) liver cirrhosis, and (v) liver surgery/transplantation. The disease-related recommendations are preceded by general recommendations on the diagnostics of nutritional status in liver patients and on liver complications associated with medical nutrition., Conclusion: This practical guideline gives guidance to health care providers involved in the management of liver disease to offer optimal nutritional care., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The expert members of the working group were accredited by the ESPEN Guidelines Group, the ESPEN Education and Clinical Practice Committee, and the ESPEN executive. All expert members have declared their individual conflicts of interest according to the rules of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). If potential conflicts were indicated, they were reviewed by the ESPEN guideline officers and, in cases of doubts, by the ESPEN executive. None of the expert panel had to be excluded from the working group or from co-authorship because of serious conflicts. The conflict of interest forms are stored at the ESPEN guideline office and can be reviewed by ESPEN members with legitimate interest upon request to the ESPEN executive., (Copyright © 2020 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Chronic liver disease places patients at increased risk of malnutrition that can be challenging to identify clinically and treat. Nutrition support is a key aspect of the management of these patients as it has an impact on their quality of life, morbidity, and mortality. There are significant gaps in the literature regarding the optimal nutrition support for patients with different types of liver diseases and the impact of these interventions on long-term outcomes. This Position Paper summarizes the available literature on the nutritional aspects of the care of patients with chronic liver diseases. Specifically, the challenges associated with the nutritional assessment of these subjects are discussed, and recently investigated approaches to determining the patients' nutritional status are reviewed. Furthermore, the pathophysiology of the malnutrition seen in the context of chronic liver disease is summarized and monitoring, as well as treatment, recommendations are provided. Lastly, suggestions for future research studies are described.

Background: Malnutrition and dehydration are widespread in older people, and obesity is an increasing problem. In clinical practice, it is often unclear which strategies are suitable and effective in counteracting these key health threats., Aim: To provide evidence-based recommendations for clinical nutrition and hydration in older persons in order to prevent and/or treat malnutrition and dehydration. Further, to address whether weight-reducing interventions are appropriate for overweight or obese older persons., Methods: This guideline was developed according to the standard operating procedure for ESPEN guidelines and consensus papers. A systematic literature search for systematic reviews and primary studies was performed based on 33 clinical questions in PICO format. Existing evidence was graded according to the SIGN grading system. Recommendations were developed and agreed in a multistage consensus process., Results: We provide eighty-two evidence-based recommendations for nutritional care in older persons, covering four main topics: Basic questions and general principles, recommendations for older persons with malnutrition or at risk of malnutrition, recommendations for older patients with specific diseases, and recommendations to prevent, identify and treat dehydration. Overall, we recommend that all older persons shall routinely be screened for malnutrition in order to identify an existing risk early. Oral nutrition can be supported by nursing interventions, education, nutritional counseling, food modification and oral nutritional supplements. Enteral nutrition should be initiated if oral, and parenteral if enteral nutrition is insufficient or impossible and the general prognosis is altogether favorable. Dietary restrictions should generally be avoided, and weight-reducing diets shall only be considered in obese older persons with weight-related health problems and combined with physical exercise. All older persons should be considered to be at risk of low-intake dehydration and encouraged to consume adequate amounts of drinks. Generally, interventions shall be individualized, comprehensive and part of a multimodal and multidisciplinary team approach., Conclusion: A range of effective interventions is available to support adequate nutrition and hydration in older persons in order to maintain or improve nutritional status and improve clinical course and quality of life. These interventions should be implemented in clinical practice and routinely used., (Copyright © 2018 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: The term medical nutrition (MN) refers to nutritional products used under medical supervision to manage disease- or condition-related dietary needs. Standardized MN definitions, aligned with regulatory definitions, are needed to facilitate outcomes research and economic evaluation of interventions with MN., Objectives: Ascertain how MN terms are defined, relevant regulations are applied, and to what extent MN is valued., Methods: ISPOR's Nutrition Economics Special Interest Group conducted a scoping review of scientific literature on European and US MN terminology and regulations, published between January 2000 and August 2015, and pertinent professional and regulatory Web sites. Data were extracted, reviewed, and reconciled using two-person teams in a two-step process. The literature search was updated before manuscript completion., Results: Of the initial 1687 literature abstracts and 222 Web sites identified, 459 records were included in the analysis, of which 308 used MN terms and 100 provided definitions. More than 13 primary disease groups as per International Classification of Disease, Revision 10 categories were included. The most frequently mentioned and defined terms were enteral nutrition and malnutrition. Less than 5% of the records referenced any MN regulation. The health economic impact of MN was rarely and insufficiently (n = 19 [4.1%]) assessed, although an increase in economic analyses was observed., Conclusions: MN terminology is not consistently defined, relevant European and US regulations are rarely cited, and economic evaluations are infrequently conducted. We recommend adopting consensus MN terms and definitions, for example, the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism consensus guideline 2017, as a foundation for developing reliable and standardized medical nutrition economic methodologies., (Copyright © 2019 ISPOR–The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The impact of nutrition status on outcomes in pediatric severe sepsis is unclear. We studied the association of nutrition status (expressed as body mass index z score) with outcomes in pediatric severe sepsis., Design: Secondary analysis of the Sepsis Prevalence, Outcomes, and Therapies study. Patient characteristics, ICU interventions, and outcomes were compared across nutrition status categories (expressed as age- and sex-adjusted body mass index z scores using World Health Organization standards). Multivariable regression models were developed to determine adjusted differences in all-cause ICU mortality and ICU length of stay by nutrition status., Setting: One-hundred twenty-eight PICUs across 26 countries., Patients: Children less than 18 years with severe sepsis enrolled in the Sepsis Prevalence, Outcomes, and Therapies study (n = 567)., Interventions: None., Measurements and Main Results: Nutrition status data were available for 417 patients. Severe undernutrition was seen in Europe (25%), Asia (20%), South Africa (17%), and South America (10%), with severe overnutrition seen in Australia/New Zealand (17%) and North America (14%). Severe undernutrition was independently associated with all-cause ICU mortality (adjusted odds ratio, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.2-7.7; p = 0.02), whereas severe overnutrition in survivors was independently associated with longer ICU length of stay (1.6 d; p = 0.01)., Conclusions: There is considerable variation in nutrition status for children with severe sepsis treated across this selected network of PICUs from different geographic regions. Severe undernutrition was independently associated with higher all-cause ICU mortality in children with severe sepsis. Severe overnutrition was independently associated with greater ICU length of stay in childhood survivors of severe sepsis.

Health-care systems are currently facing tremendous budget constraints resulting in growing pressure on decision makers and health-care providers to obtain the maximum possible health benefits of the resources available. Choices have to be made, and health economics can help in allocating limited health-care resources among unlimited wants and needs. Attempts to achieve cost reductions often focus on severe pathologies and chronic diseases as they commonly represent high health-care expenditures. In this context, awareness of the considerable financial burden caused by disease-related malnutrition (DRM) is lacking. Possibilities of reducing costs by optimising the management of DRM through medical nutrition will mostly not even be taken into account. During a European expert meeting, the total evaluation of medical nutrition was viewed and discussed. The aim of this meeting was to gain an experts' outline of the key issues relating to the health economic assessment of the use of medical nutrition. This article provides a summary of the observations per discussed item and describes the next steps suggested.

The ESPEN Guidelines on Parenteral Nutrition (PN) reflect current scientific knowledge in the field of clinical nutrition in adults. They summarize the indications for PN and its anticipated outcomes in respect of the underlying disease, nutritional status and quality of life. They are companion documents to the ESPEN Guidelines on Enteral Nutrition and follow the same general format. They address the influence of the underlying disease on the patient's nutritional status, and that of malnutrition on the outcome of the disease. Contraindications to and complications of PN are considered, together with comparative analyses of the roles of the parenteral and enteral routes in different illness states. The quality and strength of the supporting literature has been graded according to the criteria of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Hence, meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials (level of evidence Ia) or at least one randomised clinical trial (level of evidence Ib) translate to a Grade A recommendation. Levels of evidence IIa, IIb and III are attributed respectively to: at least one well-designed controlled trial without randomisation; at least one other type of well-designed, quasi-experimental study; or well-designed non-experimental descriptive studies such as comparative studies, correlation studies, case-control studies; each of these sustains a Grade B recommendation. Grade C recommendations reflect expert opinion and/or the clinical experience of respected authorities (level of evidence IV). Each of the 11 sets of PN Guidelines was devised by an international working group, the total faculty comprising no fewer than 87 experts from 16 European/Mediterranean countries, each group's contributions being co-ordinated by a designated chairman. Once each guideline had been approved by all the members of the relevant working group, this version was reviewed by at least two independent external reviewers (one selected from ESPEN's Education and Clinical Practice Committee, and at least one from outside the ESPEN committee structure). Following this review each guideline was hosted in draft form on the public pages of the ESPEN website for at least one month to permit the receipt of comments or suggestions from any interested party. At this point the Guidelines were reviewed and revised again by the original working group chairman and submitted to the Clinical Nutrition editorial process. At least 3 further reviewers were selected by the Journal's editorial office for each guideline, in line with the normal selection process. Final revisions were performed by the Chairmen of the working groups, and by ourselves as commissioning editors of the whole project. More than 300 evidence-based recommendations are now presented. Fewer than one sixth of the recommendations are Grade A, and disappointingly, but unsurprisingly, more than 50% are Grade C. The need for more and better controlled trials in the field remains apparent.

Background & Aims: Undernutrition is a problem in hospitals, with lack of nutritional routines. Recently, guidelines concerning the nutritional care process were developed from ESPEN. This study was conducted to assess the present status of nutritional routines among doctors and nurses in internal medicine (IM) and medical gastroenterology (MG), in comparison with the ESPEN guidelines., Method: A questionnaire-based investigation among doctors and nurses working in departments of internal medicine and gastroenterology in Scandinavia, based on further analysis of previous data., Results: Overall, 4512 (1753 doctors, 2759 nurses) answered the questionnaire, of which 1155 were from internal medicine and 193 from gastroenterology. A similar, non-significant, discrepancy in attitudes and nutritional routines was noted in gastroenterologists and internists. Concerning basic nutritional education, 46% in MG and 48% in IM considered it insufficient (not significant). When comparing all doctors with all nurses, 60% and 39% respectively considered their basic nutritional education insufficient (p<0.001). Concerning prescription of parenteral nutrition, 65% of the internists and 92% of the gastroenterologists had sufficient knowledge (p<0.001), while technical skill did not differ (not significant). Lack of interest was more pronounced in the internists than in the gastroenterologists, 42% vs. 32% (p<0.05), and more pronounced in doctors when comparing all doctors with all nurses (47 vs. 36%, p<0.001)., Conclusions: A discrepancy between clinical practice and attitudes towards nutrition is evident in both gastroenterology and internal medicine. Although gastroenterologists are more interested, there is room for improvement in both groups. This is true for doctors as well as nurses, even though nurses seem to be more interested and better trained than doctors.

A review of the publications on hospital malnutrition in Europe over the last 5 years shows that the incidence and prevalence of malnutrition are still very high: 21 and 37%, respectively. The process of structured nutrition support is still far from being generally implemented, as based on the few studies available. As a result, malnutrition diagnosed on admission to hospital is still associated with adverse clinical outcome (increased length of stay and higher rates of complications)., (Copyright (c) 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Nutritional intake is often compromised in elderly, multimorbid patients. Enteral nutrition (EN) by means of oral nutritional supplements (ONS) and tube feeding (TF) offers the possibility to increase or to insure nutrient intake in case of insufficient oral food intake. The present guideline is intended to give evidence-based recommendations for the use of ONS and TF in geriatric patients. It was developed by an interdisciplinary expert group in accordance with officially accepted standards and is based on all relevant publications since 1985. The guideline was discussed and accepted in a consensus conference. EN by means of ONS is recommended for geriatric patients at nutritional risk, in case of multimorbidity and frailty, and following orthopaedic-surgical procedures. In elderly people at risk of undernutrition ONS improve nutritional status and reduce mortality. After orthopaedic-surgery ONS reduce unfavourable outcome. TF is clearly indicated in patients with neurologic dysphagia. In contrast, TF is not indicated in final disease states, including final dementia, and in order to facilitate patient care. Altogether, it is strongly recommended not to wait until severe undernutrition has developed, but to start EN therapy early, as soon as a nutritional risk becomes apparent.

Enteral nutrition (EN) by means of oral nutritional supplements (ONS) and tube feeding (TF) offers the possibility of increasing or ensuring nutrient intake in cases where normal food intake is inadequate. These guidelines are intended to give evidence-based recommendations for the use of ONS and TF in cancer patients. They were developed by an interdisciplinary expert group in accordance with officially accepted standards, are based on all relevant publications since 1985 and were discussed and accepted in a consensus conference. Undernutrition and cachexia occur frequently in cancer patients and are indicators of poor prognosis. EN should be started if undernutrition already exists or if food intake is markedly reduced for more than 7-10 days. Standard formulae are recommended for EN. Nutritional needs generally are comparable to non-cancer subjects. In cachectic patients metabolic modulators such as progestins, steroids and possibly eicosapentaenoic acid may help to improve nutritional status. EN is indicated preoperatively for 5-7 days in cancer patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. During radiotherapy of head/neck and gastrointestinal regions dietary counselling and ONS prevent weight loss and interruption of radiotherapy. Routine EN is not indicated during (high-dose) chemotherapy.

Malnutrition is a common problem among patients with cancer, affecting up to 85% of patients with certain cancers (e.g. pancreas). In severe cases, malnutrition can progress to cachexia, a specific form of malnutrition characterised by loss of lean body mass, muscle wasting, and impaired immune, physical and mental function. Cancer cachexia is also associated with poor response to therapy, increased susceptibility to treatment-related adverse events, as well as poor outcome and quality of life. Cancer cachexia is a complex, multifactorial syndrome, which is thought to result from the actions of both host- and tumour-derived factors, including cytokines involved in a systemic inflammatory response to the tumour. Early intervention with nutritional supplementation has been shown to halt malnutrition, and may improve outcome in some patients. However, increasing nutritional intake is insufficient to prevent the development of cachexia, reflecting the complex pathogenesis of this condition. Nutritional supplements containing anti-inflammatory agents, for example the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) eicosapentanoic acid (EPA), have been shown to be more beneficial to malnourished patients than nutritional supplementation alone. EPA has been shown to interfere with multiple mechanisms implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer cachexia, and in clinical studies, has been associated with reversal of cachexia and improved survival.

Cancer is a major cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. It is the second most frequent cause of death in Europe and is becoming the leading cause of death in old age. Patients with cancer will develop a large number of physical symptoms. Malnutrition and weight loss are common and are due to a variety of mechanisms involving the tumour, the host response to the tumour, and anticancer therapies. Inadequate intake of energy and nutrients alone is unable to account for the substantial changes in nutritional status seen in patients with cancer. In advanced cancer, cachexia often occurs. This complex multifactorial syndrome is associated with metabolic abnormalities, anorexia, early satiety and reduced food intake, depletion of lean body mass, muscle weakness, oedema, fatigue, impaired immune function, and declines in attention span and concentration. The development and implementation of screening and assessment tools is essential for effective nutritional intervention and management of patients with cancer. Proactive nutritional interventions should ideally form an integral part of cancer therapy, with the aim of improving clinical outcomes and quality of life. This supplement brings together a collection of papers discussing various topics regarding nutrition in cancer.

The deleterious consequences of hospital malnutrition are progressively being recognized by the public. The Committee of the Ministers of the European Council has released a resolution for food and nutrition and ask the state members to apply national recommendations in their hospitals. The evaluated domains and actions to be undertaken are based on 4 elements: Access to a healthy and varied food supply is a fundamental human right; a high number of patients hospitalized in Europe are malnourished (30-60%); the demonstration that malnutrition of hospitalized patients increases length of hospital stay and medical costs; the demonstrated beneficial effects of a hospital food service and of optimal nutritional care on morbidity, healing and quality of life. The resolution indicates clearly the options to be followed to optimize the actions and decisions at three levels: patient care, support services, and administration. All caregivers must be involved in the implementation of the recommendations in a way to adapt them to the local needs and restrictions. This review summarizes the actions to be taken by medical and other caregivers in order to sensitize them to the above-mentioned problems and to initiate practical options to treat malnourished patients or patients at risk of becoming malnourished.

This document is the result of an European Consensus conference which took place in Artimino, Tuscany, Italy, in March 2001 involving 33 experts on nutrition in patients with cystic fibrosis, organised by the European Cystic Fibrosis Society, and sponsored by Axcan-Scandipharm, Baxter, Dr Falk Pharma, Fresenius, Nutricia, SHS International, Solvay Pharmaceuticals (major sponsor). The purpose of the conference was to develop a consensus document on nutrition in patients with cystic fibrosis based on current evidence.