Brief clinical report: glutamine-enriched total parenteral nutrition in a patient with radiation-induced renal and intestinal fibrosis.

Abstract

This brief clinical report illustrates the case of a 50-y-old male patient with severe radiation-induced renal and intestinal fibrosis who received glutamine-enriched total parenteral nutrition (TPN). The patient had end-stage renal disease and, therefore, underwent a kidney transplant. In the postoperative course the patient developed signs of bowel obstruction and cachexia. He received two courses of glutamine-enriched TPN before he underwent surgery for small bowel stenosis. Postoperatively, the patient received a third course of glutamine-enriched TPN. During the patient's hospital course the following indexes were monitored: patient's weight, serum concentrations of protein, albumin, and trialglycerol. Intestinal permeability was assessed with the lactulose-mannitol sugar test (L-M test). We measured changes in the patient's weight and the L-M test. We hypothesize that glutamine-enriched TPN may have been beneficial in the hospital course of this critically ill patient and may have influenced the patient's intestinal function and permeability.