Nutritional therapy in patients with sepsis: is less really more?

Authors’ response Gustav van Niekerk, Charné Meaker, Anna-Mart Engelbrecht Dear Editor, De Koning et al. refer to a number of studies that they claim provide an empirical challenge to the argument we outlined [4]: that permissive underfeeding (PU) during sepsis could hold therapeutic benefit during sepsis. [...]one of the studies that they referred to [5] reported a strikingly high mortality rate in the sepsis cohort (48.7%), supporting the notion that the cohort was experiencing a progressed disease. [...]these patients may not accurately represent the general cohort of sepsis. [...]in another study cited [6], the conclusion was that, in septic patients, “late medium protein and late high energy intake were associated with survival benefit.”