Amino Acid Nutrition in the Critically-ill

Participation Requirements

• Sex:

  ALL

• Eligible Ages:

  18 and up

Participation Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

* Mechanically ventilated adult patients (\>18 years old) admitted to ICU with an expected ICU dependency (alive and need for mechanical ventilation
* Vasopressor therapy, or mechanical circulatory support) at the point of screening of an additional 3 days, as estimated by the treating physician.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients who are moribund (expected death within 48 hours)
* Expected to have life-sustaining treatments withdrawn in the next 3 days
* Those with a contraindication to enteral nutrition (EN)
* Already on parenteral nutrition (PN)
* Those with acute fulminant hepatitis or severe chronic liver disease (Child's class C)
* Patients on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or carbon dioxide removal\* Patients with organ transplantation
* Those with a broncho-pleural fistula
* Patients with documented allergies to any of the study nutrients or its excipients will be excluded.
* Patients requiring continuous renal replacement therapy or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation are excluded due to inability to accurately measure protein turnover.