Effect of vitamin D as Nutrition Supplement on Patients with Prolonged Ventilation due to Ventilator Associated Pneumonia and Sepsis Followed Severe Traumatic Lung Contusion: A Randomized Controlled Trial: doi: 10.7417/CT.2026.1976

Background: Recent studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent among critically ill patients, with reported rates ranging from 40% to 80% in ICU cohorts. Its deficiency associated with increased risk for respiratory infections, prolonged ventilation and increased length of stay, and mortality. Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of vitamin D in controlling clinical manifestation of severe lung contusion, Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) and sepsis and assess its impact on duration both of ventilation, ICU stay and its impact on mortality rate of those patients who had sever traumatic lung contusion and ventilated for ten days, then complicated by VAP and sepsis as complications from prolonged ventilation. Methods: This prospective, double-blinded, randomized controlled study included patients with severe traumatic lung contusion and ventilated for long time (10 days) then enrolled 80 patients from them who had Murray score > 4, clinical pulmonary infection score (CPIS) > 6 and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score (SOFA) of > 10 (GCS excluded from the score). Patients were randomly allocated to either group A(n=40), received our standard protocol of feeding or group B (n=40) received the same protocol with vitamin D supplementation. Duration of lung healing from severe trauma, VAP control, sepsis control, also duration of both ventilation and ICU stay and mortality rate between those patients were recorded and compared for 2 weeks. Results: Patients in Group B exhibited a significantly shorter duration of healing from traumatic lung contusion, shorter duration to recover from VAP, recover from sepsis, shorter duration of ventilation and ICU stay with less mortality rate at the end of the studied period. Conclusion: This study clarifies the effect of vitamin D in controlling all clinical manifestation of severe traumatic lung contusion, controlling all clinical manifestation of VAP, controlling all clinical manifestation of sepsis, accelerate weaning from ventilation, shorten the duration of ICU stay and decreasing the mortality rate of those patients who had sever traumatic lung contusion and ventilated for ten days, then complicated by VAP and sepsis as complications from prolonged ventilation.