Definition
Cachexia is a state of profound general decay, characterized by prostration, slowing of psychic abilities, loss of appetite and reduction of fat and especially muscular masses (negative nitrogen balance).
Causes
Read also: Cachxia - Causes and Symptoms »
Cachexia can be the expression of several conditions:
- hunger cachexia : typical of states of profound malnutrition, often accompanied by edema, hypocholesterolemia, hypothermia and arterial hypotension (see Kwashiorkor and Marasma).
- Endocrine Cachexia : caused by serious pathologies of the endocrine system (deputy to the production of hormones), for example due to a hyposecretion pathology of the pituitary hormones (Simmonds disease or pituitary cachexia).
- Cachexia from infections : it can be caused by particularly debilitating infectious diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.
- Cachexia from dementia or from anorexia nervosa (determined by the almost total loss of appetite, due to a complex mental illness typical of the adolescent period).
- Cachexia from autoimmune diseases .
- Addiction Cachexia .
- Neoplastic cachexia : typical of patients with pre-terminal malignant tumors (especially if located in the esophagus or stomach), it has a complex etiology in which different mechanisms come into play (anorexia, alteration of glucose metabolism and release of substances produced both by the tumor and by the host, capable of influencing the body's metabolism moving it towards catabolism); often represents the most debilitating feature of this morbid process.
Treatment
The goal of cachexia therapy is to calculate and provide the patient with nutritional supplies suitable for covering the energy, protein, carbohydrate, lipid, vitamin and hydro-electrolytic needs, obviously taking into account the general conditions, the nutritional status, the pathology that the has caused and any pre-existing metabolic diseases (diabetes, gout, cirrhosis, renal failure).
In relation to the patient's condition, nutrition may take place by OS, by nasogastric or naso-enteric probe or by parenteral route.
More information on effective dietary supplementation plans is available in the article: Food integration in cancer cachexia.
