Interventional nutrition for the critical care patient: optimal diets.

The classic goals of nutritional support have been to provide for the patient's ongoing nutritional needs and to preserve endogenous tissues from further catabolism. It is becoming increasingly clear that it also is possible to modulate metabolic and pathologic processes through the use of specific nutrients and metabolites and even the route by which nutrition is provided. This article discusses what is and is not known about the nutritional requirements of critically ill dogs and cats and some of the specific nutrients that are being used to enrich formulas for critically ill patients.