Nutritional support in cardiac critical patients. Is it safe?

Abstract

Nutritional therapy plays a key role in the treatment of critically ill patients, including those in need of cardiac critical care. Their hypermetabolism stimulates a high protein catabolism with a great loss of body proteins. It has been widely established that preventing malnutrition reduces mechanical ventilation days, and infection and mortality rates. In spite of this, still patients in the
cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) are underfed, probably due to the lack of evidence on artificial nutrition in these patients and gastrointestinal complications that may occur after cardiac surgery. The latest clinical guidelines and investigations strongly suggest early enteral feeding for cardiac critical patients, as delaying it is related to greater complications that extend the length of
CICU and hospital stay.