Costs/quantities of the resources were not reported separately. Only hospital costs were considered, including resources for medication and nutrition support such as mixing, storing, delivering or administering the solutions, feeding access (parenteral or enteral), mechanical complications related to feeding access, metabolic complications of TPN and TEN, including diarrhoea and distension associated with enteral feeding, and cost of supplies. Costs of monitoring were based on the authors' hospital experience. Costs of antibiotics and treatment of gastrointestinal complications were based on average wholesale prices (AWP) obtained from the 1996 Drug Topics Red Book. No discounting rate was applied in the analysis as the time horizon of the study was less than one year.