Background: Malnutrition is a common complication of hemodialysis that needs to be prevented,
properly diagnosed and treated. Intra-dialytic feeding is a controversial yet effective method to help < br />improve nutritional status.
Objective(s): To assess intradialytic dietary pattern and nutritional status of hemodialysis patients
and determine the energy and protein adequacy on hemodialysis and non-hemodialysis days.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted using a predesigned interview questionnaire, 3-day
24-hour diet recall, anthropometric measurements, serum albumin and total iron binding capacity
measurements, and malnutrition inflammation score (MIS) for 150 hemodialysis patients.
Results: More than three quarters of the patients reported eating during the hemodialysis session with
71.3% of them eating due to the long session hours. Mean energy and protein intake on hemodialysis
days was 1743.0 ± 718.1 kcal and 73.78 ± 37.15 g, respectively, which was significantly higher
among patients who eat than those who don't eat during the hemodialysis session (p < 0.001).
Although mean serum albumin was higher in patients who eat during dialysis session and MIS was
lower, there was no statistically significant difference between both groups.
Conclusion: Intradialytic feeding is a common practice in chronic hemodialysis patients. Both
energy and protein intakes and their adequacies were found to be higher in patients who eat during
the dialysis session. This hints at the importance of utilization of dialysis session time to enhance the
patients' nutritional status. Therefore, it is recommended to individualize the advice of intradialytic
feeding according to the patient's needs.