Nutritional support in the critically ill patient (#2)

The provision of nutritional support for critically ill patients continues to be the subject of intense debate, with the central question being the optimal energy and protein intake for ICU patients. However, most studies that have examined this area have used predictive equations, demonstrated to be inaccurate to target energy intake.

In this research study, the investigators looked at the 60-day mortality outcome of a large cohort of ICU patients in relation to the percent of administered calories divided by resting energy expenditure (REE) with REE obtained by indirect calorimetry.

A key message from the study was how both under- and over-feeding appear to harmful to critically ill patients and that the use of indirect calorimetry should be a core assessment tool in the ICU setting.

For the shownotes, please go to: https://dietitianconnection.com/podcasts/podcasts-journalclub/episode-2/