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

Sanjay Kumar Mishra; Rakesh Ranjan; Suman Kumari; Sukriti Kumari

doi:10.63363/aijfr.2025.v06i05.1747

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

Author(s)	Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Rakesh Ranjan, Dr. Suman Kumari, Sukriti Kumari
Country	India
Abstract	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.
Keywords	Critical care, Nutritional support, Hyper-metabolism.
Field	Sociology > Home Science
Published In	Volume 6, Issue 5, September-October 2025
Published On	2025-10-29
DOI	https://doi.org/10.63363/aijfr.2025.v06i05.1747
Short DOI	https://doi.org/g99qnz

View / Download PDF File

E-ISSN 3048-7641

doi

CrossRef DOI is assigned to each research paper published in our journal.

AIJFR DOI prefix is
10.63363/aijfr

Downloads

Research Paper Format Copyright Permission Form and Undertaking Form

All research papers published on this website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and all rights belong to their respective authors/researchers.

CC-BY-SA

About AIJFR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9898-79-39-59	editor@aijfr.com

Advanced International Journal for Research

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

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

Share this