Effects of early versus late enteral nutrition on the nutritional status of surgical intensive care unit patients

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy and safety of early enteral nutrition (within 48 h) and late enteral nutrition (after 48 h; control) in improving the nutritional status of surgical intensive care unit patients. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: This single-center, retrospective, observational study was conducted using data from 82 patients (age > 18 years) who were admitted to surgical intensive care units between June and November 2019. Patients who received enteral nutrition for >7 days were included in this study, and those who received total parenteral nutrition or palliative care were excluded. RESULTS: The early and late enteral nutrition groups comprised 41 patients each. Early enteral nutrition significantly increased the actual intake of calories and protein (p < 0.0001) as well as the length of stay in the surgical in-tensive care unit (p = 0.047) and hospital (p = 0.028). Late enteral nutrition significantly reduced albumin concentration (p < 0.05), hemoglobin concentration (p < 0.05), and lymphocyte count (p < 0.05) but significantly increased weight loss (p < 0.05). However, no significant between-group difference was observed in mortality rate. CONCLUSIONS: Early enteral nutrition improves the nutritional status of surgical intensive care unit patients. It shortens overall hospitalization duration and increases actual calorie and protein intake at dis-charge. Thus, early enteral nutrition is recommended for critically ill patients.