Construction of a Nutrition Management Guidance Flowchart for Patients With Chronic Wounds Based on Best Evidence

ABSTRACT

The lack of systematic and comprehensive clinical nutrition management practices for patients with chronic wounds necessitates the construction of a scientifically-based, standardised, normalised nutrition management guidance procedure for these patients in clinical settings. The purpose of this study was to: (i) summarise the best evidence for nutrition management in patients with chronic wounds by performing a systematic literature search and rigorous evaluation, and (ii) construct a nutrition management guidance flowchart for these patients based on best evidence. We reported the best evidence summary for nutrition management in patients with chronic wounds by following the Evidence Summary Reporting Standard of Fudan University Evidence-Based Care Center. An expert panel was established to construct a flowchart of nutrition management guidance for patients with chronic wounds by discussing existing evidence entries. After the quality evaluation, 17 studies (5 guidelines and 12 systematic reviews) were included, which provided extractable data for this summary of evidence. The best evidence of nutrition management in patients with chronic wounds was summarised, and a nutrition management guidance flowchart based on this was constructed, which can provide references for medical staff to guide nutrition management for patients with chronic wounds. Looking ahead, more high-quality research is needed to focus on specific personalised nutrition management programmes for patients with chronic wounds.