The advent of home parenteral nutrition support.
I review here some key developments of personal and professional interest, with special reference to total parenteral nutrition (TPN), an area in which I have been involved from 1937 until recently. As a result of basic and biomedical science advances achieved in university and industrial laboratories in numerous countries, many essential nutrients were identified, synthesized, produced, and provided to patients in safe and effective forms both enterally and parenterally. This period also saw important developments in analytic instrumentation. I have had the privilege of seeing major advances in nutrition during my lifetime, and it is my belief and my hope for the future that with the advent of bowel transplants and tissue growth from cells, TPN will be a temporary measure rather than a lifetime regimen.
Shils
Maurice E
ME
Cornell University Medical College, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065, USA. mshils@triad.rr.com
D006801:Humans; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D016562:Parenteral Nutrition, Home Total / Q000639:trends*