ABSTRACT
Since Stanley Dudrick's seminal work and publication of parenteral nutrition in the late 1960s, alternatives to delivering the maximum amount of micro- and macronutrients have been ferociously debated. Among clinicians, patients, and even hospital administrators, few can deny the contributions of enteral and parenteral nutrition to the routine or critically ill patient. Research continues to improve parenteral nutrition formulae for in adults and children. The debates of enteral versus parenteral nutrition continue but they should be evidenced based. Both references hold significant importance regardless of topic, and the subject of initiating early versus late parenteral nutrition in the intensive care unit should also be evidence based. The ability of a surgeon at the time of an operation to predict gastroparesis or a postoperative ileus has yet to be investigated, and as such it proves challenging to determine which patient requires immediate postoperative nutritional support.
