Nutrition Support for the Burn Patient

Nutritional support remains an important aspect in the care of critically ill patients, especially those with severe burns. The unique hypermetabolic state occurring after a severe burn can cause metabolic rates to double and is accompanied by severe catabolism. The hypermetabolic state persists for more than a year after severe injury, and if nutritional support does not meet the increased energy expenditures, patients experience significant loss of lean muscle mass, impaired wound healing and immune dysfunction [1, 2]. The goal of nutritional support in the burn patient is to ameliorate and optimize the deranged metabolism and avoid nutritional complications.