title: What is the best nutritional support for critically ill patients?
abstract: Optimum nutritional support in critical illness remains controversial. A recent review of nutritional interventions in the ICU concluded that few of them improved clinical outcomes. In our view, it is a serious shortcoming of these trials that they focused on calories, falling far short of current recommendations for protein provision. Well designed clinical trials that ensure sufficient protein provision are urgently needed if we are to improve the quality of nutritional support in the ICU.
authors.affiliation: 1 Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; 2 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: L John
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Hoffer
authors.affiliation: 1 Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; 2 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Bruce R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Bistrian
keywords: Critical illness; energy; malnutrition; nutritional support; protein