Invited Review Indications for Administration of Parenteral Nutrition in Adults

nutrition (PN) has been the subject of much debate and 4 recent meta-analyses. Methods: We reviewed the 4 meta-analyses that examined the prospective, randomized, clin-ical trials (PRCT) that compared PN with no nutrition support (standard care) for design, study population, out-comes evaluated, and results. Results: Overall, a total of 113 PRCT were included in the 4 meta-analyses; however, only 4 studies were included in all of them. Despite the differences in populations studied and outcomes evalu-ated, some similarities emerged: (1) PN does not affect mortality; (2) PN does not reduce complications in nor-mally nourished patients; (3) in malnourished patients, PN demonstrated a trend for reduced infections and complication rates; and (4) PN reduced postoperative complications in patients having surgery for cancer of th