Editorial Immunonutrition in Critical Illness

Immunonutrition is an emerging therapy that has been the focus of a number of clinical trials. Manipulation of the immune system has the sub-stantial potential to modify disease outcome, partic-ularly in regard to infectious complications. Many studies have examined the effects of nutritional formulas supplemented with arginine, n-3 fatty acids, structured lipids, and nucleotides compared with standard enteral feeding. Unfortunately, because of marked heterogeneity between studies, only limited consensus has been reached. Some randomized studies have shown that immune-en-hanced nutritional formulas can reduce postopera-tive infectious complications in surgical patients with gastrointestinal or head and neck cancer an