Intradialytic Feeding Practice and Nutritional Status of Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients in Alexandria, Egypt

Background: Malnutrition is a common complication of hemodialysis that needs to be prevented,properly diagnosed and treated. Intra-dialytic feeding is a controversial yet effective method to help < br />improve nutritional status.Objective(s): To assess intradialytic dietary pattern and nutritional status of hemodialysis patientsand determine the energy and protein adequacy on hemodialysis and non-hemodialysis days.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted using a predesigned interview questionnaire, 3-day24-hour diet recall, anthropometric measurements, serum albumin and total iron binding capacitymeasurements, and malnutrition inflammation score (MIS) for 150 hemodialysis patients.Results: More than three quarters of the patients reported eating during the hemodialysis session with71.3% of them eating due to the long session hours. Mean energy and protein intake on hemodialysisdays was 1743.0 ± 718.1 kcal and 73.78 ± 37.15 g, respectively, which was significantly higheramong patients who eat than those who don’t eat during the hemodialysis session (p < 0.001).Although mean serum albumin was higher in patients who eat during dialysis session and MIS waslower, there was no statistically significant difference between both groups.Conclusion: Intradialytic feeding is a common practice in chronic hemodialysis patients. Bothenergy and protein intakes and their adequacies were found to be higher in patients who eat duringthe dialysis session. This hints at the importance of utilization of dialysis session time to enhance thepatients’ nutritional status. Therefore, it is recommended to individualize the advice of intradialyticfeeding according to the patient’s needs.