Effectiveness of registered dietitian-led management of early nutritional support in the emergency intensive care unit: a retrospective observational study

Appropriate nutritional management in critically ill patients positively impacts prognosis. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a dietitian-led early enteral nutrition protocol in an intensive care unit (ICU).

This retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data included patients who stayed in the emergency ICU (EICU) for at least 5 days between April 2021 and May 2022. Patients were divided into control and early support groups based on the implementation of the early enteral nutrition protocol in November 2021.

The time to start enteral nutrition after admission was significantly shorter in the early support group (41.9 h) than in the control group (59.8 h). The early support group (n = 58) also had higher nutritional sufficiency rates than the control group (n = 56) and a lower incidence of diarrhea (10% vs. 37.5%).

The dietitian-led early nutritional support system effectively reduced the time to enteral nutrition initiation, improved nutritional sufficiency rates, and decreased the incidence of diarrhea in the EICU.