Design of nutrition trials in critically ill patients: food for thought

We would like to thank Drs. Casaer and Van den Berghe for their thoughtful editorial on our article “Permissive underfeeding or standard enteral feeding in critically ill adults” published in the New England Journal of Medicine on June 18, 2015 (1,2). Over the last few years, several large clinical trials have added immensely to our knowledge regarding nutritional support of critically ill patients. Table 1 summarizes and contrasts eight recent multicenter trials which compared different doses of enteral nutrition (1,3-5), or enteral versus parenteral nutrition (6-9).