When more is better

Nutrition support of critically ill patients with sepsis is one of the most debated issues among intensivists. The latest international sepsis guidelines recommend the prescription of a low volume of feeds through gastric or intestinal enteral nutrition (EN) for 7 days after admission to the ICU. The data to support such recommendations are scarce, and large trials are needed to clarify this issue. As reported in the previous issue of Critical Care, Elke and colleagues have revisited a database containing 13,630 ICU patients, of whom 2,270 met four inclusion criteria: sepsis or pneumonia, ICU stay of at least 3 days, mechanical ventilation within 48 hours after ICU admission, and exclusive EN. The goal of the authors was to assess the impact of various levels of energy and protein administration on mortality at 60 days after ICU admission and on the duration of mechanical ventilation. They found that standard levels of energy and protein recommended by international guidelines for patients in the ICU do also apply to patients with sepsis in the ICU. This is an important finding, which contradicts the current recommendations and beliefs for this subgroup of patients in the ICU and gives a strong rationale for launching a large prospective randomized trial.