Invited Review

Critically ill patients often require a number of therapeutic interventions to improve their overall outcome. Among these, early enteral nutrition (EN) is one of the most important yet undervalued and overlooked tools in the armamentarium of the critical care clinician. The benefits of early EN are well documented and include maintenance of the structural integ-rity of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, reduced gut permeability, and increased GI blood flow.1-3 EN has been also been associ-ated with improved clinical outcomes, including reduced infectious complications, reduced hospital length of stay, and costs associated with nutrition therapy, respectively.4-17 In order for nutrients to be adequately absorbed and used, ade-quate blood flow to the GI tract is required. Another important component of care in many critically ill patients is the use of inotropes and vasoactive substances in hemodynamicall