Gastric Residual Volume Assessment in Critically Ill Children: The GASTRIC-PICU Randomized Clinical Trial.

Not routinely assessing gastric residual volume in ventilated critically ill children was noninferior to 6-hourly assessments for survival and ventilator-free days at 30 days (median 25 days in both groups; adjusted OR 0.95 [95% CI 0.86-1.05]). In the trial of 4700 children in pediatric intensive care units in the UK and Switzerland, dropping routine GRV checks also improved feeding: mean energy requirements achieved by 72 hours were 80.3% versus 76.8% (adjusted mean difference 3.2 percentage points, P < .001).