Question

Discuss why Enteral Nutrition is recommended over Parental Nutrition in critically ill patients who are hemodynamically stable and have a functional gastrointestinal (GI) tract?

Answer 1

Supplying nutrients by tube feeding is a part of the nutritional support for patients that are at the risk of developing malnutrition, this is called as “enteral nutrition.” In this method, nutrients are delivered in the form of dense-formulas directly to the stomach or small intestine.

It is important to prefer enteral feeding over parental nutrition in critically ill patients because long-term parenteral nutrition may cause hyperglycemia (most common), hypoglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, refeeding syndrome, liver disease, gallbladder disease and metabolic bone disease. As the patient is hemodynamically stable and has a function GIT, parental nutrition is not recommended (not the candidate for parental nutrition).