The limiting factor in nutritional support of the vast majority of patients is the attainment and maintenance of safe access, whether it be to the venous system for total parenteral nutrition (TPN) or to the gut for enteral nutrition. Indeed, the mainstay of nutritional support therapy is deciding the appropriate route for nutritional support and obtaining access to provide that support. Centra...

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...

Comprehensive care of patients in hospitals includes assessment of nutritional status and provision of appropriate support. This approach is facilitated by knowledge of the essential differences in metabolism between starved and stressed states. Nutritional assessment and care of patients in a hospital are based on answers to the following questions: Who gets it? When do they get it? How much d...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Strategies to treat malnutrition lack practicability in the hospital setting. The present study aimed at developing and evaluating a routinely manageable concept for an improved nutritional care of malnourished in-hospital patients. METHODS A randomized controlled intervention study was conducted. 132 risk patients defined by Nutritional Risk Screening 2002, were randomized ...

Introduction University College London Hospital (UCLH) was one of the largest contributors to the CALORIES trial; a pragmatic, multi-centre, randomised control trial examining the effectiveness of early nutritional support in critically ill patients through a comparison of parenteral and enteral nutrition. The trial found no significant difference in 30-day mortality associated with the route o...

The provision of adequate nutrition support for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been a clinical challenge for decades. The primary and secondary injuries create unique metabolic derangements along with accompanying issues such as optimal timing and route of nutrition, appropriate fluid and electrolytes, drug administration, rehabilitation, and dysphagia. Enteral nutrition is clea...

Nutrition support is a necessary therapy for critically ill cardiac surgery patients. However, conclusive evidence for this population, consisting of well-conducted clinical trials is lacking. To clarify optimal strategies to improve outcomes, an international multidisciplinary group of 25 experts from different clinical specialties from Germany, Canada, Greece, USA and Russia discussed potenti...

Nutrition support is an important part of care management in critically ill patients, not only to prevent and treat malnutrition but also it has a significant impact on recovery from illness and overall outcome. There is little information available about present nutritional support practice for patients in intensive care units (ICU) in the UK. This survey was designed to evaluate the present n...