Abstract:Objective To investigate the effect of early enteral nutrition on pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in critically ill patients. Methods To divided the critically ill patients with pancreatic exocrine insufficiency into group A and group B. The group A accepted enteral nutrition within 24 hours following admission to ICU, while the group B accepted that after 24 hours following admission to ICU. After that, the fecal elastin-1 (FE-1) concentration were detected and compared on the third day and the fifth day. The proportion of secondary PEI in two groups at different time periods was calculated, and the length of ICU stay and total length of stay were recorded. Results Group A showed higher fecal elastin-1 concentration both in the third day and the fifth day (P < 0.05) and lower incidence of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (P < 0.05) than group B. Meanwhile, group A showed shorter ICU stay than group B (P < 0.05). Conclusions Early enteral nutrition appears a positive effect on critically ill patients with pancreatic exocrine insufficiency and reduces their ICU stay.