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Enteral Nutrition in the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit: Challenges and Considerations
Author(s) -
Widlicka Annie
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
nutrition in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1941-2452
pISSN - 0884-5336
DOI - 10.1177/0884533608323422
Subject(s) - medicine , parenteral nutrition , intensive care medicine , intensive care unit , clinical nutrition , enteral administration , coronary care unit , glycemic , population , critical appraisal , myocardial infarction , specialty , intensive care , insulin , alternative medicine , pathology , environmental health
Cardiovascular disease is a common preexisting condition among hospitalized patients. Acute myocardial infarction and cardiac surgery account for 2 of the most common reasons patients are admitted to the intensive care unit. Determining how and when to feed these patients is a constant challenge presented to nutrition support practitioners. Enteral nutrition has emerged as the preferred route of feeding particularly in critical illness. By providing enteral nutrition instead of parenteral nutrition, the natural physiologic pathway is being followed and gut immunity preserved. However, obstacles such as upper gastrointestinal intolerance, hypoperfusion vasopressor support, and glycemic control make the task of initiating feeds a challenge. Once a patient has successfully tolerated feeds, the nutrition support clinician must still determine how much to feed and if specialty formulas such as those containing omega‐3 fatty acids are beneficial for their patient. The purpose of this review is to present recent research on the feeding challenges in the critical care population with a focus on the cardiothoracic population and an emphasis on improving patient outcomes.