A multicenter, randomized controlled trial comparing early nasojejunal with nasogastric nutrition in critical illness.

Objective: Current guidelines recommend enteral nutrition in critically ill adults; however, poor gastric motility often prevents nutritional targets being met. We hypothesized that early nasojejunal nutrition would improve the delivery of enteral nutrition.

Design: Prospective, randomized, controlled trial.

Nutritional therapy in patients with acute pancreatitis requiring critical care unit management: a prospective observational study in Australia and New Zealand.

Objective: To determine nutritional therapy practices of patients with severe acute pancreatitis (defined as those receiving critical care management in an intensive care unit or high-dependency unit) in Australia and New Zealand with focus on the choice of enteral nutrition or parenteral nutrition.

Design: Prospective observational multicentered study performed at 40 sites in Australia and New Zealand over 6 months.

Setting: Intensive care units or high-dependency units within Australia and New Zealand.

Expensive care - a rationale for economic evaluations in intensive care.

The demand for intensive care services is growing, and the cost of these services is increasing, with newer technologies consuming larger portions of the health care budget. We contend that both the costs and benefits of interventions must be considered to truly understand their value in critical care. Economic evaluations provide an explicit framework to compare the costs and benefits of an intervention.