Effect of enteral and/or parenteral glutamine supplementation on mortality and morbidity in the critically ill

Introduction

In this study we aimed to compare the effectiveness of enteral, parenteral and combined enteral-parenteral glutamine supplementations in the nutrition of critical care patients.

Methods

This is a single-center, randomized controlled clinical trial. During the 5-day study period, all patients received standard enteral nutrition product and were divided into three groups, including parenteral glutamine (Group I), enteral glutamine (Group II) and enteral + parenteral glutamine (Group III) supplementations. Blood biochemistry, rates of infections, length of stay in the ICU and duration of mechanical ventilation were evaluated.

Results

Sixty patients were included in this study. There was no statistically significant difference for biochemical values between the different feeding groups. Frequency of infections ranged as Group II >Group III >Group I and mortality as Group II = Group III >Group I. Length of stay in the ICU and duration of mechanical ventilation were significantly longer in Group II than the others.

Conclusion

Although mortality was not significantly different between groups, parenteral glutamine administration causes less stay of ICU and mechanical ventilation. This needs a more powerful randomized controlled study [1].