New device supports ICU patients nutritional needs

When you or a loved one is in the intensive care unit (ICU), your body will experience changes that affect your energy when recovering from a serious illness or surgery. Low energy levels create fatigue and affect your appetite. Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin is the first hospital in Central Texas to use a new FDA-approved advanced metabolic monitor device that helps critically ill patients get the nutrition they need when they can’t eat on their own.

The metabolic monitor device helps your care team understand exactly how many calories are needed to gain the right amount of nutrition to help your body heal if you are connected to a breathing tube during a hospitalization. Instead of relying on estimates, the device connects to the breathing tube and measures the air a patient breathes in and out. This tells your nurses, in real time, how much energy your body is using so we can match your nutrition to what you truly need–preventing patients from being overfed or underfed, both of which can slow down healing. With accurate, personalized information, your care team is able to better support your recovery and overall health.

Bo Kim, MD, cardiothoracic surgical critical care director at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin, helped bring this important technology to Ascension Seton to expand diagnostic tools used to help create personalized treatment plans for you and your family.

“Having the ability to measure resting energy expenditure directly at the bedside allows us to provide gold-standard nutritional support for our critically ill patients,” Dr. Kim said. “By precisely meeting each patient’s nutritional needs, we can better support healing, improve recovery times and help patients transition out of the ICU more safely.”

 To learn more about Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin and the compassionate, quality care we provide, visit ascension.org/SetonAustin.