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Huntington Disease – Principles and practice of nutritional management
Affiliations- Centre for Public Health and Health Promotion, Institute of Rural Health in Lublin, Poland, Poland
- Higher School of Social Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- Department of Physiology, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, 6 Święcickiego St, 60-781 Poznań, Poland
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Abstract
Huntington disease (HD) is a degenerative brain disease clinically manifested by the characteristic triad: physical symptoms including involuntary movements and poor coordination, cognitive changes with less ability to organize routine tasks, and some emotional and behavioral disturbances. For patients with HD, feeding is one of the problems they have to face. People with HD often have lower than average body weight and struggle with malnutrition. As a part of therapy, good nutrition is an intervention maintaining health and functional ability for maximally prolonged time. In the early stages of HD, small amounts of blenderized foods given orally are recommended. In more advanced stages, enteral nutrition is essential using gastric, or jejunal tubes for short term. Most severe cases require gastrostomy or gastrojejunostomy. Although enteral feeding is well tolerated by most of the patients, a number of complications may occur, including damage to the nose, pharynx, or esophagus, aspiration pneumonia, sinusitis, metabolic imbalances due to improper nutrient and fluid supply, adverse effects affecting gastrointestinal system, and refeeding syndrome.
Abstract
Huntington disease (HD) is a degenerative brain disease clinically manifested by the characteristic triad: physical symptoms including involuntary movements and poor coordination, cognitive changes with less ability to organize routine tasks, and some emotional and behavioral disturbances. For patients with HD, feeding is one of the problems they have to face. People with HD often have lower than average body weight and struggle with malnutrition. As a part of therapy, good nutrition is an intervention maintaining health and functional ability for maximally prolonged time. In the early stages of HD, small amounts of blenderized foods given orally are recommended. In more advanced stages, enteral nutrition is essential using gastric, or jejunal tubes for short term. Most severe cases require gastrostomy or gastrojejunostomy. Although enteral feeding is well tolerated by most of the patients, a number of complications may occur, including damage to the nose, pharynx, or esophagus, aspiration pneumonia, sinusitis, metabolic imbalances due to improper nutrient and fluid supply, adverse effects affecting gastrointestinal system, and refeeding syndrome.
Keywords
Huntington disease, Dysphagia, Malnutrition, Enteral nutrition
About this articleTitle
Huntington Disease – Principles and practice of nutritional management
Journal
Neurologia i Neurochirurgia Polska
Issue
Article type
Review Article
Pages
442-448
Page views
646
Article views/downloads
838
DOI
10.1016/j.pjnns.2014.10.006
Bibliographic record
Neurol Neurochir Pol 2014;48(6):442-448.
Keywords
Huntington disease
Dysphagia
Malnutrition
Enteral nutrition
Authors
Wioletta Żukiewicz-Sobczak
Renata Król
Paula Wróblewska
Jacek Piątek
Magdalena Gibas-Dorna
