Nutrition and care considerations in the overweight and obese population within the critical care setting.

Nutrition and care considerations in the overweight and obese population within the critical care setting are multifaceted. Patients requiring critical care have specialized care management needs that often times challenge health care providers. When patients are obese, this further complicates the physiologic aspects of healing, thus creating challenges to meeting both the nutritional needs of the individual and hampering treatment. This article reviews the care considerations, physiology of bariatric patients, and challenges of providing safe and quality care, including current evidence-based practice strategies developed to provide optimal support for obese patients during hospitalization and within the critical care setting.