Ketogenic Diet & Delirium on ICU - A Feasibility Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Does a ketogenic diet reduce delirium in Intensive Care. Part I - A feasibility study to test if a ketogenic diet causes ketosis in patients on Intensive Care.
IRAS ID
199995
Contact name
Kieron Rooney
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 1 days
Research summary
When people are starving, or eating a high-fat, low carbohydrate diet, the body makes chemicals called ‘ketones’. These seem to improve some aspects of brain function. High ketone levels seem to preserve brain function in animals which have a stroke or head injury , and ‘ketogenic diets’ have been used for over 80 years in the management of epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. We want to find out whether they could also help protect the brains of the critically ill, making them less prone to delirium. Ketogenic diets have never been tried in an intensive care population, who often have significantly deranged metabolic function and it is unknown if a KD will cause a ketosis in these patients in the same way.
This study is a “randomised controlled trial” (RCT). Patients on ICU are generally fed through a tube into the stomach. 'Control’ patients will receive the standard feed, whilst the treatment group will receive a special ‘ketogenic’ feed for up to 14 days. Patients will be randomly allocated to one group or the other. We want to know if a ketogenic diet will cause a systemic ketosis that could help with their care. If so it has potential to reduce the distress and suffering experienced by patients and their carers/ families, and also to shorten stay and reduce healthcare costs.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SC/0350
Date of REC Opinion
25 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion