Nutrition in critical care.

Many hospitalized patients with cancer are malnourished. Some become critically ill and experience delayed wound healing, loss of muscle strength, and reduced infection fighting ability as a consequence of the loss of nutritional reserves. Complications of critical illness may cause interruption in normal gastrointestinal function and result in shock, sepsis, hypochlorhydria, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and other disorders. As a result, critically ill patients may require nutritional support.