Assessment of Nutrient Absorption in Enterally Fed Post-intensive Care Unit Patients Using Bomb Calorimetry: do the Calories Stick

Summary

This study focuses on understanding how well patients who have recovered from an ICU stay absorb nutrients when receiving enteral (tube) feeding. Proper nutrition is crucial for recovery, but we don't fully understand how efficiently enteral feeding works in ICU survivors. The study will use advanced techniques like bomb calorimetry to measure the energy content of stool, and indirect calorimetry to measure patients' resting energy expenditure (REE). This will help assess the effectiveness of enteral feeding in these patients, providing valuable information about their metabolic needs and nutritional status.

The study will also look into the environmental impact of enteral feeding, particularly food waste. By understanding how much of the nutrition is absorbed versus excreted, the study hopes to suggest more sustainable feeding practices and reduce unnecessary waste in hospitals.

Key Goals:

* Primary Goal: Measure how much energy from enteral feeding is absorbed by patients post-ICU by analyzing their stool and energy expenditure.
* Secondary Goal: Assess how enteral feeding can be made more sustainable, with less waste generated from unused nutritional products.

This research will help improve nutritional care for ICU patients, enhance recovery, and potentially lead to more environmentally friendly healthcare practices.

Conditions

• Post-ICU Patients Fully Enterally Fed

Interventions

OTHER

caloric intake measurement

Detailed daily tracking of the enteral feeding provided to each patient, inclusing the type and amount of nutritional formula administered. Apart from the enteral intake, supplemental calories provided by infusion (e.g. glucose) will be recorded to ensure accurate measurement of caloric intake.

PROCEDURE

stool sample collection

* a nonabsorbable blue dye marker will be administered at the start and end of the stool collection period to precisely indentify the stool produced within a specific time frame. * stool will be collected for three days. Each sample will be collected, weighted and labeled with the date and time, then stored at -20°C. * only stool samples from the appearance of the first dye marker to the appearance of the second dye marker will be saved and analyzed. * bomb calorimetry preparation * blending and dilution: each stool sample will be put into a blender and mixed with an equal amount of water * freeze dying: the diluted stool will be placed into freeze-dye flasks and frozen at -20°C. The next day, the flasks will be placed into a freeze dryer for 48hours. * pellet formation: the freeze-dried samples will be formed into 1-gram pellets and stored until calorimetry * calorimetry analysis: the Parr 6200 isoperibol calorimeter will be used to measure the energy content of the stool pellets

OTHER

energy expenditure measurement

performing indirect calorimetry to measure the REE of each patient

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Société des Produits Nestlé (SPN)

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-01-08

Primary Completion

2028-04-01

Completion

2028-04-01

Countries

• Belgium

Study Locations