The incidence of various micronutrient deficiencies in critically ill patients who required CRRT was higher than previously reported. Prospective studies are needed to determine the impact of CRRT on micronutrient status and the potential clinical and metabolic efficacy of supplementation in the intensive care unit setting.

Over the last decade, chronic critical illness (CCI) has emerged as an epidemic in intensive care unit (ICU) survivors worldwide. Advances in ICU technology and implementation of evidence-based care bundles have significantly decreased early deaths and have allowed patients to survive previously lethal multiple organ failure (MOF). Many MOF survivors, however, experience a persistent dysregulated immune response that is causing an increasingly predominant clinical phenotype called the persistent inflammation, immunosuppression, and catabolism syndrome (PICS). The elderly are especially vulnerable; thus, as the population ages the prevalence of this CCI/PICS clinical trajectory will undoubtedly grow. Unfortunately, there are no proven therapies to prevent PICS, and multimodality interventions will be required. The purpose of this review is to: (1) discuss CCI as it relates to PICS, (2) identify the burden on healthcare and poor outcomes of these patients, and (3) describe possible nutrition interventions for the CCI/PICS phenotype.

Malnutrition in hospitalized patients is a major cause for hospital re-admission, pressure ulcers and increased hospital costs. Methods to improve the administration and documentation of nutritional supplements for hospitalized patients are needed to improve patient care, outcomes and resource utilization. Staff at a medium-sized academic health science center hospital in the southeastern United States noted that nutritional supplements ordered for patients at high risk for malnutrition were not offered or administered to patients in a standardized manner and/or not documented clearly in the electronic health record as per prescription. This paper reports on a process improvement project that redesigned the ordering, administration and documentation process of oral nutritional supplements in the electronic health record. By adding nutritional products to the medication order sets and adding an electronic nutrition administration record (ENAR) tab, the multidisciplinary team sought to standardize nutritional supplement ordering, documentation and administration at prescribed intervals. This process improvement project used a triangulated approach to evaluating pre- and post-process change including: medical record reviews, patient interviews, and nutrition formula room log reports. Staff education and training was carried out prior to initiation of the system changes. This process change resulted in an average decrease in the return of unused nutritional formula from 76% returned at baseline to 54% post-process change. The process change resulted in 100% of nutritional supplement orders having documentation about nutritional medication administration and/or reason for non-administration. Documentation in the ENAR showed that 41% of ONS orders were given and 59% were not given. Significantly more patients reported being offered the ONS product (p=0.0001) after process redesign and more patients (5% before ENAR and 86% after ENAR reported being offered the correct type, amount and frequency of nutritional products (p=0.0001). ENAR represented an effective strategy to improve administration and documentation of nutritional supplements for hospitalized patients.

Background Despite major advances in the medical management of Crohn’s disease (CD), a significant proportion of patients will require surgery within 5 years of diagnosis. Malnutrition is an independent risk factor for adverse post-operative outcomes following gastrointestinal surgery. Data on the value of pre-operative total parenteral nutrition (TPN) in CD patients are mixed and there is a paucity of data in the biologic era. We aimed to define the role of pre-operative TPN in this population. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study conducted at a tertiary referral center. CD patients who underwent major abdominal surgery were identified. Patients receiving pre-operative TPN were compared to controls. We compared the incidence of 30-day infectious and non-infectious post-operative complications between the two groups. Results A total of 144 CD patients who underwent major abdominal surgery between March 2007 and March 2017 were included. Fifty-five patients who received pre-operative TPN were compared to 89 controls. Twenty-one (14.6%) patients developed infectious complications (18.2% in TPN group vs 12.3% in non-TPN group, P = 0.34) and 23 (15.9%) developed non-infectious complications (14.5% in TPN group vs 16.9% in non-TPN group, P = 0.71). In a multivariate analysis, controlling for differences in baseline disease severity and malnutrition between groups, patients receiving pre-operative TPN for ≥60 days had significantly lower odds of developing non-infectious complications (odds ratio 0.07, 95% confidence interval: 0.01–0.80, P = 0.03). Weight loss of >10% in the past 6 months was a significant predictor of post-operative complications. Conclusions In a subset of malnourished CD patients, TPN is safe and allows comparable operative outcomes to controls. Pre-operative TPN for ≥60 days reduced post-operative non-infectious complications without associated increase in infectious complications.