New specialist menu to support liver disease patients to launch at Royal Derby Hospital
Colleagues at Royal Derby Hospital have created a specialist, tailored menu for patients being treated for liver disease to help aid the ongoing management of their condition, reduce their length of stay and potentially readmittance to hospital.
The menu has been carefully constructed to help meet the complex dietary needs for patients with damaged livers and will be available from Monday 20 February.
The main job of the liver is to metabolise the nutrients from food, but in patients who have liver disease, this function does not happen as efficiently meaning patients can be "at the tipping point of going into starvation" in a nutritional sense. Protein, carbohydrate and salt intake all need to be carefully managed, making their dietary needs incredibly complex.
Rhiannon Robinson, Lead Specialist Gastroenterology Dietitian, was part of the team who helped to create the new menu and says it forms a crucial part of the management of liver disease:
"We store lots of energy in our liver, whereas patients who have cirrhosis [damage to the liver] can't do this as well.
"To compensate for this, patients need to eat high calorie meals that are rich in carbohydrates and protein regularly, so their bodies have a ready supply of nutrients. If they don't have this, they start to break down muscle cells which can quickly lead to malnourishment.
"If their condition worsens to the point where they're in what is known as decompensated liver disease, this can be really detrimental to them and having the right food available is a vital way to manage this."
Rhiannon and her team worked with Catering colleagues to choose from existing menu items and making some new additions and adjustments to create the new menu which will help patients to stay as healthy as possible. Snacks, such as sandwiches and cereals, have also been made available to order for patients to eat in the evening so their bodies are fuelled through the night.
Examples of some of the meals on the menu include typically "hearty meals", such as curries and shepherd's pie, with extras such as bread rolls, which can be added to ensure patients are eating enough carbohydrates.
Asides from benefitting patients while they are being cared for at Royal Derby Hospital, it is hoped the menu will act as an educational guide to patients and give them a clearer understanding of how to manage their diets when they are discharged home or to their next place of care.
Rhiannon added: "Processing all of this information is really hard and is just one aspect of the care these patients need. This is a condition they need to manage for the rest of their lives and it can be a bit bamboozling so hopefully this menu helps to make things just that bit simpler.
"A lot of patients with this condition can be in hospital for a long time and might not give much thought to nutrition. Some of them also have a history with alcohol intake which can supress their appetites, while others might be waiting for a transplant, so these things can add to the complexity of their situation and adds to the importance of getting their nutrition right.
"Our hope is that when these patients are discharged, they'll have meal ideas that incorporate lots of carbs and protein to help them manage their condition and avoid them becoming malnourished at home."