Nutrition Support for
the Critically Ill Patient

During the latter half of the twentieth century and to the present day, critical care of seriously ill

or injured patients has evolved to become the highest priority for most, especially skilled, health-
care teams in most hospitals in the United States and throughout the world. Indeed, we are rapidly

approaching the point at which hospitalized patients will consist of those requiring highly special-
ized intensive care services in various critical care units by highly talented and motivated com-
prehensive teams of health-care professionals, using state-of-the-art knowledge and technology,

and those with complex acute or chronic disorders or conditions that cannot be treated adequately
or practically on an ambulatory basis, or in an alternate health maintenance and care facility, or at
home.