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World J Crit Care Med. Feb 4, 2017; 6(1): 13-20
Published online Feb 4, 2017. doi: 10.5492/wjccm.v6.i1.13
Management of parenteral nutrition in critically ill patients
Paolo Cotogni
Paolo Cotogni, Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Pain Management and Palliative Care, S. Giovanni Battista Hospital, University of Turin, 10123 Turin, Italy
Author contributions: Cotogni P developed the research question and review design, drafted and finalized the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Paolo Cotogni, MD, MSc, Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Pain Management and Palliative Care, S. Giovanni Battista Hospital, University of Turin, Via Giovanni Giolitti 9, 10123 Turin, Italy. paolo.cotogni@unito.it
Telephone: +39-011-5171634 Fax: +39-011-5171634
Received: September 3, 2016
Peer-review started: September 7, 2016
First decision: September 29, 2016
Revised: October 30, 2016
Accepted: December 7, 2016
Article in press: December 9, 2016
Published online: February 4, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: The goal of parenteral nutrition (PN) is to complete the therapy without complications. But the goal of “near zero” PN-related complications is achievable if appropriate prevention and monitoring procedures for reducing PN complications are instituted. The key message of this review is the strong recommendation for the development and implementation of protocols for the safe management of PN in critically ill patients, in which each healthcare professional will be actively engaged. If accurately managed, PN can be safely provided for most critically ill patients without expecting a relevant incidence of PN-related complications.