BACKGROUND Nutritional support is an essential component of the management of critically ill and injured ICU patients. Optimal provision of calories and protein has been demonstrated to reduce morbidity, mortally, and length of ICU and hospital stay. Yet, a large proportion of ICU patients receive inadequate nutrition. OBJECTIVE To provide an evidence-base assessment of factors leading to ina...

INTRODUCTION Nutritional support generates complications that must be detected and treated on time. OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence of some complications of nutritional support in patients admitted to general hospital wards who received nutritional support in six high-complexity institutions. METHODS Prospective, descriptive and multicentric study in patients with nutritional support; t...

Under the auspices of the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) clinical practice guidelines on enteral nutrition were systematically developed between spring 2004 and winter 2005 in a both evidence and consensus based process. A steering committee implemented 13 disease-specific working groups with a total of 88 experts in clinical nutrition from 20 countries. Evidence...

This article discusses the use of enteral nutrition in the management of stroke. Stroke is a major source of disability, including dysphagia. The clinical manifestation of swallowing difficulties in stroke patients may lead to malnutrition which has implications for health status and clinical outcomes including morbidity, mortality and cost to the health service. The prevalence of malnutrition ...

BACKGROUND Although the benefits of enteral nutrition in acute pancreatitis are well established, the optimal composition of enteral feeding is largely unknown. The aim of the study was to compare the tolerance and safety of enteral nutrition formulations in patients with acute pancreatitis. METHODS Electronic databases (Scopus, MEDLINE, Cochrane Controlled Clinical Trials Register) and the p...

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of high protein enteral nutrition on protein status in acute stroke patients. The subjects were divided into two groups using block randomisation, i.e. the intervention group that received high protein enteral nutrition (HPEN), and the control group that received enteral hospital diet. Thirty six out of 60 acute stroke patients had complet...

background: a high percentage of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (icu) have systemic inflammatory response syndrome (sirs) criteria. free radicals play an important role in initiation and development of sirs. the purpose of this study was to assess and compare the molecular changes of cellular antioxidant power in patients with sirs who received enteral nutrition (en) or en combine...

OBJECTIVE To describe current nutrition practices in intensive care units and determine "best achievable" practice relative to evidence-based Critical Care Nutrition Clinical Practice Guidelines. DESIGN An international, prospective, observational, cohort study conducted January to June 2007. SETTING One hundred fifty-eight adult intensive care units from 20 countries. PATIENTS Two-thousa...

Feeding-related adverse events after percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) such as aspiration pneumonia can impede the use of PEG. Percutaneous endoscopic transgastric jejunostomy (PEG-J) using large-bore jejunal tubes with gastric decompression function may improve outcomes by circumventing gastric passage during enteral nutrition and improving drainage of excessive gastric secretions. Thi...