Effectiveness of Enteral Nutritional Therapy in the Healing Process of Pressure Ulcers: A Systematic Review^*

Efectividad de la terapia de nutrición enteral en el proceso de cicatrización de las úlceras por presión: revisión sistemática

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effectiveness of enteral nutritional therapy (ENT) in the healing process of pressure ulcers (PU) in adults and the elderly.

METHOD

A systematic review whose studies were identified through the databases of Cochrane, MEDLINE/PubMed, SciELO, LILACS, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and manual searches. It included randomized clinical trials (RCTs) without delimiting the period or language of publication, which addressed adults and elderly patients with pressure ulcers in a comparative treatment of enteral nutritional therapy and placebo or between enteral nutritional therapy with different compositions and dosages.

RESULTS

We included ten studies that considered different interventions. It resulted in more pressure ulcers healed in the groups that received the intervention. The included studies were heterogeneous with regard to patients, the type of intervention, the sample and the follow-up period, all of which made meta-analysis impossible.

CONCLUSION

Although the enteral nutritional therapy demonstrates a promotion of pressure ulcer healing, sufficient evidence to confirm the hypothesis was not found.

Pressure Ulcer; Nutrition Therapy; Wound Healing; Review