• Hiroyuki Ohbe, Taisuke Jo, Hiroki Matsui, Kiyohide Fushimi, and Hideo Yasunaga.
• Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Health Economics, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
• Crit. Care Med. 2019 Aug 1; 47 (8): 1072-1080.

ObjectivesWhether enteral nutrition should be postponed in patients undergoing sustained treatment with neuromuscular blocking agents remains unclear. We evaluated the association between enteral nutrition initiated within 2 days of sustained neuromuscular blocking agent treatment and in-hospital mortality.DesignRetrospective administrative database study from July 2010 to March 2016.SettingMore than 1,200 acute care hospitals covering approximately 90% of all tertiary-care emergency hospitals in Japan.PatientsMechanically ventilated patients, who had undergone sustained treatment with neuromuscular blocking agents in an ICU, were retrospectively reviewed. We defined patients who received sustained treatment with neuromuscular blocking agents as those who received either rocuronium at greater than or equal to 250 mg/d or vecuronium at greater than or equal to 50 mg/d for at least 2 consecutive days.InterventionsEnteral nutrition started within 2 days from the initiation of neuromuscular blocking agents (defined as early enteral nutrition).Measurements And Main ResultsWe identified 2,340 eligible patients during the 69-month study period. Of these, 378 patients (16%) had received early enteral nutrition. One-to-three propensity score matching created 374-1,122 pairs. The in-hospital mortality rate was significantly lower in the early than late enteral nutrition group (risk difference, -6.3%; 95% CI, -11.7% to -0.9%). There was no significant difference in the rate of hospital pneumonia between the two groups (risk difference, 2.8%; 95% CI, -2.7% to 8.3%). Length of hospital stay among survivors was significantly shorter in the early compared with the late enteral nutrition group (risk difference, -11.4 d; 95% CI, -19.1 to -3.7 d). There was no significant difference between the two groups in length of ICU stay or length of mechanical ventilation among survivors.ConclusionsAccording to this retrospective database study, early enteral nutrition may be associated with lower in-hospital mortality with no increase in-hospital pneumonia in patients undergoing sustained treatment with neuromuscular blocking agents.

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