Nutritional support for patients in critical care: Obstacles, Approaches, and Recent developments

Nutritional support is an essential aspect of managing patients in intensive care units (ICUs). Critical illness induces a hyper-metabolic state, resulting in considerable nutritional requirements and muscle loss. Nutritional support for critically ill patients encompasses strategies such as initiating early enteral nutrition (EN) within 24–48 hours to preserve gut integrity and avert complications, along with the application of specialized formulas or immunonutrients to satisfy hypermetabolic requirements. Effective nutritional interventions can enhance clinical outcomes, shorten the duration of mechanical ventilation, and facilitate overall recovery. Nevertheless, providing sufficient nutrition to critically ill patients poses numerous challenges, including the patient's unstable condition, fluctuating metabolic needs, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and the complexities involved in achieving precise caloric and protein targets, which are approximately 25–30 kcal/kg/day and 1.2–2.0 g/kg/day, respectively. Recent advancements are concentrating on personalized nutrition, with growing evidence endorsing the use of indirect calorimetry for accurate measurement of energy requirements, and an increased focus on functional and physical recovery outcomes alongside survival. The significance of early enteral nutrition and the creation of specialized formulas have contributed to enhanced patient care. Approaches such as personalized nutrition, immunonutrition, and monitoring tools like indirect calorimetry have become vital elements of nutrition management in the ICU. Furthermore, managing critically ill patients with co-morbidities, such as sepsis or multi-organ failure, necessitates customized strategies to avert malnutrition and prevent overfeeding. This review emphasizes the primary challenges related to nutritional support in critical care, the current strategies utilized to optimize nutrition, and the recent developments in the field. By implementing evidence-based practices alongside personalized care, nutritional support can improve patient recovery, decrease ICU duration, and reduce morbidity and mortality rates.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Advanced International Journal for Research

• Publication date

  2025-10-29

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.63363/aijfr.2025.v06i05.1747
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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