Energy and nitrogen balances in 24 severely burned patients receiving 4 isocaloric diets of about 10 MJ/m2/day (2392 Kcalories/m2/day)

Abstract Twenty-four subjects with burns ranging from 25 to 70 per cent received for 12 days exclusively per os a series of 4 isocaloric diets of about 4 000 Kcal—‘normal’, or hyperproteic, or hyperlipidic, or hyperglucidic according to a randomized schedule. Oxygen consumptions were measured at the end of each diet and nitrogen balance was determined every day. Though patients were not massively overfed there remained a positive energy gap. The nitrogen balance was found to be equilibrated on the whole but clearly positive with the hyperproteic diet and clearly negative with the hyperlipidic-normoproteic diet. Thus there is no rationale for the huge energy overfeeding classically used.