NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT IN INTENSIVE-CARE UNITS IN ENGLAND AND WALES - A SURVEY

Objective: To assess current practice in nutritional support in intens ive care units (ICUs) in England and Wales. Design: A three-section qu estionnaire about feeding practice was sent to all adult ICUs in Engla nd and Wales; this requested information on nutritional support provid ed for all patients during a single designated 24-h study period. Resu lts: 66% of the questionnaires were completed and returned. 43% of pat ients received nutritional support. Of these, 46% received only parent eral nutrition, 34% only enteral nutrition, 4% received sip feeds and the remaining 16% received more than one form of feeding. 81% of patie nts fed by the nasogastric route had a large-bore tube in place. More than 40% of patients were fed parenterally via the central route, of t hese 54% had a dedicated feeding line. Conclusions: Despite the compli cations of central venous feeding and the advantages of and developmen ts in enteral feeding these findings suggest there could be further im provement in our provision of nutrition for the critically ill patient .