Does prone positioning affect achievement of medical nutritional goals?

Objective: Prone position (PP) is used in the treatment of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of PP (>24 hours) on achieving medical nutritional goals. Materials and Methods: Between 2018 and 2022, a total of 385 patients in the Anesthesiology and Reanimation Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were included, 183 of whom were in the prone group and 202 in the Non-prone (NP) group, who underwent Invasive Mechanical Ventilator (IMV) support with ARDS. Demographic data, comorbidities and medical nutrition (MN) status of the patients were analysed retrospectively from the electronic database. The rate of achievement of MN targets on days 3.7.14 of the PP and NP groups was compared. Results: A statistically significant low level negative correlation was found in the correlation analysis between prone time and the rate of achievement of calorie and protein targets in the PP group patients (r=-0.370, p<0.001) (r=0.303, p<0.001). The rate of severe ARDS was statistically significantly higher in the PP group than in the NP group (P<0.001). The median duration of IMV in both patient groups was over 15 days and was statistically significantly higher in the PP patient group (p<0.001). Conclusion: PP delays the achievement of the target calorie and protein ratio, and some patients did not reach the target calorie and protein ratio.