Clinical practice of nutritional support in Dutch intensive care units: a survey.

INTRODUCTION

Nutritional support in intensive care units (ICUs) has received increasing attention in the last few decades. We performed a national survey to establish the current practice with respect to nutritional support in Dutch ICUs. METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to all Dutch ICUs. The design of the study was a 1-day point prevalence study. RESULTS: The response rate of the ICUs was 51% (74/144). Eighty-eight percent of the questionnaires returned (65/74) were suitable for data analysis. The total number of patients present on the ICU on the given day was 354 and their mean age was 59.2+/-1.0 years. Sixty-nine percent of the patients (246) received nutritional support: enteral in 206 patients (58%), parenteral in 59 patients (17%), and a combination of the two in 19 patients (5%). The percentage of patients receiving nutritional support and the route of administration were dependent on the reason for admission to the ICU. Nutritional support was started after a mean of 1.3+/-0.1 days after admission to the ICU. One hundred and four patients (29%) received no nutritional support after a mean admission period of 1.6+/-0.1 days. For 193 patients (54%), the nutritional support met the nutritional requirements, for 145 patients (41%) it did not, and 17 respondents (5%) had no opinion. CONCLUSION: Nutritional support is provided to the majority of critically ill patients. Enteral feeding is more common than parenteral nutrition.