Frequency of gastrointestinal complications was
higher in the control group: 63.6 vs. 47.8% of the patients
(P = 0.004). Nevertheless, the difference was due only to
the frequency of HGRV, which was present in 70 (42.4%)
patients in the control group and in 42 (26.8%) in the
study group (P = 0.003). Mean number of HGRV events
per patient was also higher in the control group
(0.96 ± 1.59 vs. 0.44 ± 0.88) (P = 0.001). The number
of events of HGRV in patients with this complication are
indicated in Table 2. No differences were appreciated
between groups in the method used for GRV measurement:
gravity drainage was used in 50.7% of the control
group patients and in 63.4% in the study group
(P = 0.19). Frequency of the remaining gastrointestinal
complications was similar in both groups (Table 3). Percentage
of patients with complementary PN during their
ICU stay was 10.6% for the control group and 17.1% for
the study group (P = 0.11).