Intensive Care Nutrition and Post-Intensive Care Recovery

Intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired weakness frequently complicates critical illness, which prolongs intensive care dependency and causes long-term burden. Observational studies have suggested that prolonged underfeeding could aggravate ICU-acquired weakness and impair outcome. However, recent large randomized controlled trials have failed to show a benefit of early enhanced nutrition to critically ill patients. Moreover, early parenteral nutrition was even shown to increase ICU-acquired weakness and prolong organ failure and intensive care dependency, which may be explained by feeding-induced suppression of autophagy. Currently, the ideal timing of artificial nutrition for critically ill patients as well as the optimal dose and composition remain unclear.