Critical care nursing clinics of North America
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Crit Care Nurs Clin North Am · Mar 1993
The significance of enteral nutrition in the intensive care unit patient.
The gut and its nonimmunologic and immunologic barriers have an important role in the survival of critically ill patients. Burns, hemorrhagic shock, intestinal obstruction, protein-calorie malnutrition, and several therapies (e.g., parenteral nutrition, steroids), used in critically ill patients are known to promote the breakdown of the mucosal barrier and to permit translocation of intestinal pathogens. Enteral nutrition, in conjunction with the use of certain immunostimulatory nutrients, can now be used to prevent or minimize damage to the mucosal barrier and to enhance its immunologic function in critically ill patients.
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During the past few decades, researchers have shed new light on the role of nutritional support in the immunocompromised critically ill patient. "Nutritional pharmacology" has become the catch phrase of the 1990s due to the impact of selected nutrients on host immune defenses. When feasible, enteral nutrition is preferred to parenteral nutrition to preserve the integrity of the gut mucosal barrier, especially when administered jejunally in the early stages of hypermetabolism. Glutamine and fiber provide necessary fuels for the gastrointestinal tract, whereas arginine and omega-3 fatty acids exert beneficial effects on certain cells of the immune system. Daly et al demonstrated that "enteral nutrition with supplemental arginine, RNA nucleotides and omega-3 fatty acids (Impact, Sandoz Nutrition, Minneapolis, MN) compared with a standard enteral diet, significantly improved immune, metabolic and clinical outcomes (22% mean reduction in length of stay) in UGI cancer patients undergoing surgery." Although more research is needed in the area of nutritional pharmacology, newly available nutrient-specific enteral products (Table 1) provide promise for altering the clinical outcome of immunocompromised patients.
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Crit Care Nurs Clin North Am · Dec 1992
Needs of families of critically ill patients: state of the science and future directions.
This article provides an overview of the needs of families of critically ill patients and offers suggestions for future research. Continuous, systematic study about the needs of families of critically ill patients is necessary for nursing to be responsive to the health care needs of society in the 21st century.
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This article provides an overview of the literature reviewing the stresses and needs of families of critically ill children. These needs and stresses are summarized and organized to provide a framework for the research-based standard of care that is presented for parents of critically ill children.
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When the pregnant woman develops an acute or critical illness requiring invasive hemodynamic monitoring, it is imperative to consider physiologic changes that occur during pregnancy that impact on assessment parameters. Awareness of both the alterations in these parameters and the changes in arterial blood gas values guide nursing care that continues to support perfusion and oxygenation needs unique to pregnancy. When critical care capabilities are not available in the labor and delivery unit, the obstetric patient is most often transferred to a medical or surgical intensive care unit. In such cases, consultation with obstetric staff is warranted.