"Looking ahead, there are a number of places to go" with this research, Dr. Rice said. "Some of the questions we’ve thought about are what role does this play in the [total parenteral nutrition] question, and whether we need to be feeding patients at all. Initially, we thought the idea of not feeding patients would be a hard study to sell, but with these data, it may not be an unreasonable thing to look at."
Dr. Rice disclosed no financial conflicts of interest.