Nutritional support of the multiple trauma patient

This report presents a brief review of currently relevant aspects of the parenteral nutritional support of the multiple trauma patient in intensive care. The decisive factors governing selection and application of an individually devised program of parenteral nutrition are the multiple trauma patient's energy turnover and nitrogen losses on the one hand, and the tolerance limits and viability of the traumatized organism on the other. It is possible nowadays to provide situation-adapted nutritional support corresponding to the individual requirements of a seriously injured patient. However, further detailed studies are still necessary to come up with more definite answers to questions regarding requirement levels, turnover, and tolerance of the substrates applied in critical metabolic situations. This aside, adequate nutritional therapy at present represents without a doubt an integral feature of any long-term post-trauma therapeutic program.