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Nutritional support is an important issue in the management of critically ill patients.
Integrity and functioning of most of the cells of the body depends on continuous delivery of nutrients. In critically ill patients, there is interference with storage and mobilization of nutrients because of organ dysfunction. The two main routes for providing nutrition in critically ill patients are enteral feeding and parenetral nutrition. In addition, enteral feeding also causes decrease in bacterial leak through the intestinal mucosa. All these factors result in decreased mortality rate after a septic or hypotensive insult.