Table 2.
Study characteristics
| Study | Design | N | Medical versus surgical patients |
Determinants |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treatment group ( n ) | Control group ( n ) | Third group ( n ) | ||||
| Bauer 2000 [11] |
RCT |
120 |
Mixed (exclusion of elective surgery) |
EN + EPN for 4 to 7 days (60) |
EN + placebo for 4 to 7 days (60) |
x |
| Cahill 2011 [12] |
Prospective observational study |
703 |
Medical |
EN + EPN <48 h of admission (83) |
EN >48 h of admission + no PN (541) |
EN + LPN both >48 h of admission (79) |
| Casaer 2011 [13] |
RCT |
4,640 |
Almost 90% surgical patients (58.5% admitted electively) |
LPN ≥8 days of admission (2,328) |
EPN <48 h of admission (2,312) |
x |
| Doig 2013 [14] |
RCT |
1,372 |
Mixed |
EPN <24 h of admission (686) |
Pragmatic standard care: unfed for 2 to 5 days (686) |
x |
| Heidegger 2013 [15] |
RCT |
305 |
Mixed |
EN + LPN >3 days of admission (153) |
EN at day 1 (152) |
x |
| Kutsogiannis 2011 [16] | Prospective observational study | 2,920 | Mixed | EN <48 h of admission (2,562) | EN + EPN both <48 h of admission (188) | EN <48 h of admission + LPN >48 h of admission (170) |
N, number of patients; RCT, randomized control trial; EN, early enteral nutrition; EPN, early parenteral nutrition; x, not applicable; h, hours; LPN, late parenteral nutrition. NB: studies used different definitions for EPN, LPN and EN.