Caloric requirements in patients with severe head injuries.

Indirect calorimetry was performed on 15 nonsteroid-treated, head-injured patients over 16 postinjury days. A search was made for a clinical marker that could be used to predict the caloric requirement in individual head-injured patients. Of all parameters reviewed, only motor activity correlated with the caloric needs of the patients (P less than 0.0001). Flaccid patients had a mean caloric expenditure of 108% of expected values, whereas patients with abnormal motor activity had a mean caloric expenditure of 191% of expected values.