Patients
TBI, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases
ASPIRATION PNEUMONIA
After approval of the local research Ethics Committee (Comitato Etico of Ospedali Riuniti, Foggia, Italy, 46/CE/2022), written informed consent was obtained by each patient or by relatives. The study was performed from February 2021 to March 2022 at the Department of Intensive Care, University Hospital of Foggia, Italy (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05854264).Inclusion criteria were: adults (age > 18 years), TBI patients requiring mechanical ventilation. Exclusion criteria were: pregnant women, patients with gastric content inhalation (and possible aspiration pneumonia), chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, major abdominal surgery and/or organs/tissues transplant, patients on corticosteroid and/or immunosuppressive therapy.Patients were randomized in two groups: a standard enteral feeding or a specialized formula enriched in fish oil and arginine. Standard formula contained 1 kcal/ml, fat 30%, carbohydrate 55%, protein 15%, while specialized nutrition formula contained 1.01 kcal/ml, fat 25%, carbohydrate 53%, protein 22% enriched with omega 3 330 mg/100 ml and arginine 1.3 g/100 ml. Randomization was performed by computer-generated random allocation sequence by simple randomization. The calories (25 kcal/kg/day) and protein (1.2 g/kg/day) target were progressively reached in the first week of ICU stay for all patients.