Catabolic Illness: Strategies for Enhancing Recovery

RAPID weight loss, associated with the loss of body fat and skeletal-muscle mass, frequently accompanies short-term, self-limiting disease processes, such as infection and injury. 1 , 2 Similar catabolic events are associated with other disorders, such as diabetic ketoacidosis, 3 the failure of multiple organ systems, 4 and extensive chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer. 5 The loss of body tissue may be minimal and of little consequence in a patient with a normal nutritional status and a brief, self-limiting illness lasting only one week, but when the disease is prolonged and the patient is nutritionally depleted, a variety of clinical events occur in association with . . .