Diagnosis‐Related Group Impact of Nutrition Support in Cardiac Surgery Patients

We studied the diagnosis‐related groups (DRG) impact of nutrition support on 80 consecutive cardiac surgery patients operated upon during a 6‐month period. Six of 80 patients were nutritionally depleted preoperatively. Seven received postoperative supplemental nutrition, all of whom had major postoperative complications. Patients were arbitrarily placed into three outcome groups: group I consisted of seven patients who received postoperative nutrition support; group II included 38 patients who received no nutrition support and did not develop complications; Group III consisted of 35 patients who received no nutrition support but developed postoperative complications. All group I patients were length of stay (LOS) outliers. Group I patients were significantly older than groups II and III (p < 0.0003) and had a significantly longer average length of stay (ALOS) (p < 0.001), ALOS in SICU (p < 0.0001) and greater incidence of both septic complications (p < 0.02) and mortality (p < 0.02). Nutrition support in cardiac surgery patients warrants special DRG consideration in light of the significantly increased hospitalization and resource utilization as compared with all other patients in cardiac surgery. ( Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition 12: 473–477, 1988)