Abstract: Objective: To investigate the current status and clinical outcomes of enteral nutrition support in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) patients, in order to provide a basis for improving the quality of critical care. Methods: A total of 330 children admitted to the intensive care unit of a tertiary grade A children's hospital in Shanghai from July 2022 to January 2023 were recruited by continuous sampling method. The study investigated the intake of early enteral nutrition, energy, protein and the clinical outcome of the children. Results: Among the 330 cases, 275 cases (83.3%) had early enteral nutrition and 55 cases (16.7%) had delayed nutrition. There were 125 cases (37.9%) with unreasonable energy intake. Protein intake was insufficient in 155 cases (47.0%). There were 6 cases (1.8%) of retropyloric feeding, 210 cases (63.6%) of enteral nutrition interruption, and 77 cases (23.3%) of enteral nutrition complications. There were significant differences in weight gain, mechanical ventilation time, multiple organ dysfunction, PICU hospitalization time and hospitalization cost between early enteral nutrition group and delayed enteral nutrition group (P<0.05). There were significant differences in weight gain, multiple organ dysfunction and hospitalization time in PICU between rational energy intake group and irrational energy intake group (P<0.05). There were significant differences in mechanical ventilation time and hospitalization time of PICU between reasonable protein intake group and insufficient protein intake group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Patients in PICU have low retropyloric feeding rate, high incidence of nutritional disruption and nutritional complications, and high unreasonable rate of energy and protein intake. The early enteral nutrition, reasonable energy and protein intake of patients have better clinical outcomes such as hospitalization time in PICU. It is necessary to standardize the management of enteral nutrition support to improve the quality of care for PICU patients.

Key words: children; Pediatric Intensive Care Unit; enteral nutrition; nutrition support; clinical outcomes