Nutritional support in the critically ill

Eve, Richard; Sair, Mark

doi:10.1016/j.mpaic.2008.12.005

« Previous Next »Anaesthesia & intensive care medicine
Volume 10, Issue 3 , Pages 127-130, March 2009

Nutritional support in the critically ill

Richard Eve, FRCA, is a Specialist Registrar in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the South West School of Anaesthesia, UK. He qualified from Bristol University and trained in anaesthesia and intensive care in the southwest of England and Australia. Conflicts of interest: none declared

Mark Sair, PhD, MRCP, FRCA, is a Consultant in Intensive Care and Anaesthesia at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK. He qualified from Bristol University and trained in anaesthetics and intensive care in London. His research interests are the effects of sepsis on the circulation and tissue oxygenation. Conflicts of interest: none declared

Abstract

Malnutrition in critical illness is commonplace and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Accurate assessment of nutritional status can be difficult in the critically ill population. Nutritional requirements include energy, protein, fluid, electrolytes, minerals and micronutrients. Nutrition can be provided enterally, parenterally or in combination. Parenteral nutrition is associated with significant problems and complications and its use should be reserved for those patients in whom enteral feeding is unlikely to be established for at least 7 days or the patient who is intolerant to enteral feed.

Keywords: critical illness, enteral, nutrition, parenteral