Yaseen M Arabi, Abdulaziz S Aldawood, Samir H Haddad, Hasan M Al-Dorzi, Hani M Tamim, Gwynne Jones, Sangeeta Mehta, Lauralyn McIntyre, Othman Solaiman, Maram H Sakkijha, Musharaf Sadat, Lara Afesh
BACKGROUND: The appropriate caloric goal for critically ill adults is unclear. We evaluated the effect of restriction of nonprotein calories (permissive underfeeding), as compared with standard enteral feeding, on 90-day mortality among critically ill adults, with maintenance of the full recommended amount of protein in both groups. METHODS: At seven centers, we randomly assigned 894 critically ill adults with a medical, surgical, or trauma admission category to permissive underfeeding (40 to 60% of calculated caloric requirements) or standard enteral feeding (70 to 100%) for up to 14 days while maintaining a similar protein intake in the two groups...
June 18, 2015: New England Journal of Medicine