Nutrition support in intensive care

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, the importance of nutritional support in managing critically ill patients has become well recognized. Nutritional assessment and the early identification of patients who would benefit from nutritional therapy is very important. The goal of nutritional support for critically ill surgical patients is to prevent malnutrition and to support wound healing and immune function. Meeting the elevated nutritional requirements while avoiding metabolic complications can be difficult. This chapter addresses the many challenges of feeding critically ill surgical patients and provides guidelines for safe and effective nutritional support.