Evidence found by clinician-scientists with the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center suggest that following a Traumatic Brain Injury patients should be given nutritional supplementation through a gastric feeding tube as soon as possible. They found it can improve the chances of survival by 4 times. “The evidence shows that the body heals better when it is given proper nutrition, not just the bare minimum that keeps someone alive,” says lead author Dr. Roger Hartl, a neurological surgeon at NY-P/Weill Cornell, and the Leonard and Fleur Harlan Clinical Scholar and assistant professor of neurological surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. “Before now, patients were required to have nutritional supplementation within the first week following their injury, but our findings suggest that this is simply not soon enough.” The study's findings are published in this month's issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery. This is the largest study to ever look at the issue of nutrition and survival following TBI. The research team followed the survival outcome and nutritional care in 797 patients from 2000 - 2006. The study found that the best outcomes for patients with TBI were observed when theys received a minimum of 25kcal/kg each day. The study also found that as many as 62 percent of patients with TBI never experienced this level of caloric intake. Dr. Härtl said, “These new recommendations will be added to a widely used TBI handbook, 'Guidelines for Management of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury,'” published by the Brain Trauma Foundation.