Research
Systematic review: The relation between nutrition and nosocomial pneumonia: randomized trials in critically ill patients
1 Department of Medicine, Division of Critical Care, St Joseph's Hospital, McMaster University, 50 Charlton Avenue East, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 4A6, Canada
2 Service de Réanimation Medicale, Hôpital de Poissy, Poissy, France
3 Department of Medicine, Division of Critical Care, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Critical Care 1997, 1:3-9 doi:10.1186/cc1
Published: 13 August 1997Abstract
Objective
To review the effect of enteral nutrition on nosocomial pneumonia in critically ill patients as summarized in randomized clinical trials.
Study identification and selection
Studies were identified through MEDLINE, SCISEARCH, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, bibliographies of primary and review articles, and personal files. Through duplicate independent review, we selected randomized trials evaluating approaches to nutrition and their relation to nosocomial pneumonia.
Data abstraction
In duplicate, independently, we abstracted key data on the design features, population, intervention and outcomes of the studies.
Results
We identified four trials of enteral vs total parenteral nutrition, one trial of early enteral nutrition vs delayed enteral nutrition, one trial of gastric vs jejunal tube feeding, one trial of intermittent vs continuous enteral feeding, and three trials evaluating different enteral feeding formulae. Sample sizes were small, pneumonia definitions were variable and blinded outcome assessment was infrequent. Randomized trial evidence is insufficient to draw conclusions about the relation between enteral nutrition and nosocomial pneumonia.
Conclusions
Nutritional interventions in critically ill patients appear to have a modest and inconsistent effect on nosocomial pneumonia. This body of evidence neither supports nor refutes the gastropulmonary route of infection.