Doctors specialising in clinical nutrition deal with all aspects of a patient's nutrition. The aim is to improve the general condition of patients by optimising their nutrition and thereby accelerating their recovery. Here, the patient's current nutritional situation is analysed and adapted to the given circumstances.
Clinical nutrition plays a role in both chronic diseases and acute conditions. With the help of clinical nutrition specialists, nutritional situations are analysed and improved in cases of undernourishment or malnutrition (e.g. eating disorders or cancers), overeating (e.g. overweight or obese patients), metabolic disorders or acute illnesses (e.g. after surgery or as a result of severe infections).
As well as optimising patients' general diet by, for example, increasing or reducing calorie intake or adapting dietary choices, other forms of nutrition may also be used depending on the circumstances, e.g. enteral feeding (directly into the stomach) or parenteral (intravenous) feeding.