[Neuroendocrine response to critical illness and nutritional pharmacology].

Injury and infection produce significant alterations in metabolic homeostasis. Host humoral factors, such as the counterregulatory hormones epinephrine, cortisol, and glucagons, play important roles in metabolic changes postinjury. Hyperglycemia associated with insulin resistance is common in critically ill patients, even those who have an uneventful course postinjury.