Response to ‘Clinical guidelines for the care of adult patients receiving home parenteral nutrition’

Abstract

We appreciate the concerns expressed by Carmina Wanden-Berghe et al.1Wanden-Berghe C, Sanz-Valero J, Jesùs M, Culebras F, Abelandro Garcia de Lorenzo. Letter to the Editor: clinical guidelines for the care of adult patients receiving home parenteral nutrition.Google Scholar concerning our paper “Guidelines recommendations on care of adult patients receiving home parenteral nutrition: a systematic review of global practices”.2Dreesen M. Foulon V. Vanhaecht K. De Pourcq L. Hiele M. Willems L. Guidelines recommendations on care of adult patients receiving home parenteral nutrition: a systematic review of global practices.Clin Nutr. 2012 Oct; 31: 602-608Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (39) Google Scholar However, several points made by Carmina Wanden-Berghe et al. require some clarification. First, the search was indeed done in Medline via PubMed. In Fig. 1, we gave a detailed copy of the search strategy that led to the retrieved articles. The search term, given in the methods section of the article,2Dreesen M. Foulon V. Vanhaecht K. De Pourcq L. Hiele M. Willems L. Guidelines recommendations on care of adult patients receiving home parenteral nutrition: a systematic review of global practices.Clin Nutr. 2012 Oct; 31: 602-608Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (39) Google Scholar can be copied and put into PubMed; using this search term will yield 47 articles of which 9 were not published in English or Dutch. The search was not restricted to MESH terms in order to broaden the search to each individual word in the title, the abstract and the whole article (except for the address field and the transliterated title). We indeed agree that if using MeSH terms, the use of “Parenteral Nutrition, Home” also includes “Parenteral Nutrition, Home Total”. Second, concerning the search for “Practice guideline”, Fig. 1 clearly shows that we searched for “practice guideline”[Publication Type] OR “practice guidelines as topic”[MeSH Terms] OR “practice guideline”[All Fields]. Third, we indeed restricted our search to Dutch and English. We did so because English is the language of science and Dutch is the mother tongue of the authors. We believe that without thorough understanding of a language, a correct interpretation is difficult. Therefore, local guidelines such as the German Society for Nutrition Medicine guidelines3Koletzko B. Jauch K.W. Verwied-Jorky S. Krohn K. Mittal R. Guidelines on parenteral nutrition from the German Society for Nutritional Medicine (DGEM)-overview.Ger Med Sci. 2009; 7: 27Google Scholar were only included if published in English. However, as the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism guidelines4Staun M. Pironi L. Bozzetti F. Baxter J. Forbes A. Joly F. et al.Guidelines on parenteral nutrition: home parenteral nutrition (HPN) in adult patients.Clin Nutr. 2009; 28: 467-479Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (290) Google Scholar that were included in our paper, also thoroughly examined guidelines from other scientific societies, including Italian guidelines on Home Artificial Nutrition, the German Society for Nutrition Medicine, the Scottish Home Parenteral Nutrition Managed Clinical Network Protocol, the Australasian Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and several publications of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, we believe that all the available literature is included in our review.5Bozzetti F. Forbes A. The ESPEN clinical practice guidelines on parenteral nutrition: present status and perspectives for future research.Clin Nutr. 2009; 28: 359-364Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (77) Google Scholar Moreover, they also examined other databases such as Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane Library and EMBASE.5Bozzetti F. Forbes A. The ESPEN clinical practice guidelines on parenteral nutrition: present status and perspectives for future research.Clin Nutr. 2009; 28: 359-364Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (77) Google Scholar Finally, we believe the overall conclusion of our review would be the same when including other guidelines in different languages then English or Dutch. Clinical guidelines for the care of adult patients receiving home parenteral nutritionClinical NutritionVol. 32Issue 1PreviewWe were extremely interested to read the review of clinical guidelines for adult patients receiving parenteral nutrition1 published in the journal that you edit, and in particular to read the methodology used to conduct the literature search on MEDLINE, presumably via PubMed although this information is not given in the review. Full-Text PDF