The Effectiveness of Selenium in Oral Nutritional Therapy forPatients With Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Every year, traumatic brain injuries lead to more than one million admissions to emergency rooms and more than 50,000 deaths, and millions of disabilities worldwide, among all ages and genders. This study aimed to examine the effects of selenium added to oral nutritional therapy on the mortality rate and length of hospital stay in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for six months.

Methods and Materials/Patients: 

This clinical trial included 100 patients admitted to the ICU of Loghman Hakim Hospital, Tehran, Iran. These patients were then randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Standard oral solutions were administered to both groups according to recommended guidelines. Along with the standard nutritional intake, the participants in the intervention group were given 1000 μg of selenium (Selenase-Biosyn, Germany) on the first day of feeding, dissolved in 100 mL of normal saline for 30 minutes, followed by 500μg of selenium daily for 10 days. We screened patients for GCS, and APACHE-II scores, as well as cortisol levels on days 1 and 10.

The APACHE-II mean score on the 10th day was significantly different between the two groups, and this was also true before the intervention. In terms of mortality rates, there was no significant difference between the control group and the intervention group. Neither the control group nor the intervention group spent significantly more time in ICU.

The effects of selenium on other variables were unclear, although mortality rates did not differ significantly between the two groups. Considering the confounding variables through regression analysis, the APACHE-II variable was negatively impacted by selenium, but taking into account the significant effect of age, a definitive conclusion cannot be made.