[Nutrition and immunonutrition in septic patients]

Nutrition in septic patients is more than just caloric support. Not all nutritional concepts in general intensive care may be applied to septic patients. A tight glycemic control successfully used in post-operative intensive care patients has to be modified for the septic patient. Enteral immunonutrition leading to reduced length of stay in post-operative patients may be associated with increased mortality in patients suffering from severe sepsis. Newly developed lipid emulsions for parenteral nutrition became available. Application of these emulsions may prove to be beneficial in septic patients. An intravenous supplementation with glutamine of long-term exclusively parenterally fed intensive care patients may reduce their mortality. A nutrition individually optimized and adapted to the severity of the disease is considered to be an adjunct therapeutic measure in the treatment concept in sepsis.