The History of Critical Care Nutrition: Seventy-Five Years of Evolution

In its infancy during the formation of the specialty of critical care medicine, the need for safe and effective nutritional therapy was recognized as a key component of the care for severely ill patients admitted to an intensive care unit. The origin of modern critical care nutrition can be traced back to the invention of total parenteral nutrition, which enabled the delivery of long-term nutritional support to critically ill adults who had insufficient absorption or access to the gastrointestinal tract. This report discusses the rationale for these innovations and summarizes the events leading up to our current state of patient management in critical care nutrition.