Nutritional support in the critically ill

Malnutrition in critical illness is commonplace and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Accurate assessment of nutritional status can be difficult in the critically ill population. Nutritional requirements include energy, protein, fluid, electrolytes, minerals and micronutrients. Nutrition can be provided enterally, parenterally or in combination. Parenteral nutrition is associated with significant problems and complications and its use should be reserved for those patients in whom enteral feeding is unlikely to be established for at least 7 days or the patient who is intolerant to enteral feed.