Glutamine in the critically ill patient: can it affect mortality?

The survival of an intensive care patient is in part related to how well they can defend themselves against the damaging inflammatory processes and how well they can heal and recover. Simply blocking inflammatory mediators has, not surprisingly, proved relatively ineffective. However, a nutrient deficiency of glutamine can occur and compromises many important cellular protective, immune and recovery processes that may influence a patient's survival. This brief review discusses the evidence suggesting that an additional exogenous supply of glutamine is needed and why the systemic delivery of glutamine via the parenteral route has been shown in clinical studies to improve long-term survival.