Vitamin requirements of intravenously fed man.

The continued refinements in the application of intravenous feeding must include the provision of optimal micronutrients if the clinical utility of this technique is to be fully realized. From the above discussion, it is readily apparent that our understanding of vitamin requirements during IVF is fragmentary at best. This limited knowledge has unfortunately been extrapolated to the daily regimen of nearly all parenterally nourished patients. The fact that this is done without apparent ill effect should not deter future investigation, particularly in the critically injured or organ failure patient where subtle vitamin deficiencies may be masked by concurrent illnesses. Research should be directed toward the assessment of tissue vitamin concentration and function, with correlations to the degree of energy expenditure and/or nitrogen turnover exhibited by the patient.