Nutritional needs of trauma patients: challenges, barriers, and solutions

Trauma patients require aggressive nutritional intervention to prevent the progressive and often rapid catabolic response associated with severe injury. This article presents an overview of the stress response as a foundation for further discussion regarding the challenges, barriers, and solutions associated with providing adequate nutritional support to the trauma patient. Current nutritional support strategies are presented for the practitioner to take to the bedside, in order to optimize the metabolic response to acute injury.