Some ICU patients got 540,000 IU of Vitamin D: good responders lived longer than controls or poor responders – RCT June 2024

---

Efficacy and safety of enteral supplementation with high-dose vitamin D in critically ill patients with vitamin D deficiency - June 2024

Journal of the Formosan Medical Association https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfma.2024.05.005
An-Yi Wang a b, Yu-Chang Yeh c, Kuang-Hua Cheng d e, Yin-Yi Han f, Ching-Tang Chiu c, Chai-Chi Chang c, I-Ting Wang d 1, Anne Chao c 1

Background
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with mortality and morbidity in critically ill patients. This study investigated the safety and effectiveness of enteral high-dose vitamin D supplementation in intensive care unit (ICU) patients in Asia.

Methods
This was a multicenter, prospective, randomized-controlled study. Eligible participants with vitamin D deficiency were randomly assigned to the control or vitamin D supplementation group. In the vitamin D supplementation group, the patients received 569,600 IU vitamin D. The primary outcome was the serum 25(OH)D level on day 7.

Results
41 and 20 patients were included in the vitamin D supplementation and control groups, respectively. On day 7, the serum 25(OH)D level was significantly higher in the vitamin D supplementation group compared to the control group (28.5 IQR: 20.2–52.6 ng/mL and 13.9 IQR: 11.6–18.8 ng/mL, p < 0.001). Only 41.5% of the patients achieved serum 25(OH)D levels higher than 30 ng/mL in the supplementation group. This increased level was sustained in the supplementation group on both day 14 and day 28. There were no significant adverse effects noted in the supplementation group. Patients who reached a serum 25(OH)D level of >30 ng/mL on day 7 had a significantly lower 30-day mortality rate than did those who did not (5.9% vs 37.5%, p < 0.05).

Conclusions
In our study, less than half of the patients reached adequate vitamin D levels after the enteral administration of high-dose vitamin D. A reduction in 30-day mortality was noted in the patients who achieved adequate vitamin D levels.
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

---

Vitamin D helps people in the ICU in many ways – suggests more studies are needed – Feb 2025

Evaluation of Vitamin D Supplementation in Critically Ill Patients—A Narrative Review of Randomized Controlled Trials Published in the Last 5 Years
Nutrients 2025, 17(5), 816; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17050816
Shan Wang 1ORCID,Ruodi Ren 2,Kunkun Wang 3ORCID,Christopher Leo 4,Mengyan Li 5,Allison Chow 6,Andrew K. Yang 7 andYun Lu 2,8,*ORCID

The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among intensive care unit (ICU) patients is potentially associated with an increased risk of mechanical ventilation, sepsis, prolonged hospital stays, and mortality. Although ICU patient care has significantly improved in recent years, the role of vitamin D supplementation remains under investigation. A literature review was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane databases, focusing on randomized controlled trials published in the past five years on vitamin D supplementation in adult ICU patients. Patients’ baseline vitamin D levels, administration routes, doses, biomarker changes, mechanical ventilation duration, length of hospital stay, and mortality were analyzed.
Although vitamin D supplementation appears safe and may reduce ICU stay duration and mechanical ventilation time and improve SOFA scores, its impact on overall mortality remains uncertain.
Routine supplementation for all ICU patients is not currently recommended; clinical decisions should consider individual baseline vitamin D levels, patient characteristics, severity of illness, doses, and administration methods.
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

---

Note: People in ICU often have poor guts (poor vitamin D adsorption), Injections take weeks to improve the vitamin D levels

Both Gut-Friendly Vitamin D and Topical Vitamin D reduce both of those problems

---

VitaminDWiki – Trauma and surgery category contains:

Trauma and Surgery category has 355 articles

Large dose Vitamin D before surgery was found to help by 35 studies
Vitamin D is needed before many surgeries – many studies and RCTs
4.8 X more likely to die within 28 days of ICU if low Vitamin D - Jan 2024
Sepsis is both prevented and treated by Vitamin D - many studies
Thyroidectomy and Vitamin D - many studies
Orthopaedic surgeries need Vitamin D – many studies
Cancer - After diagnosis   chemotherapy
TBI OR "Traumatic Brain Injury - 21 in title as of Sept 2022
Superbug (Clostridium difficile) Infections strongly associated with low vitamin D - many studies
Glutamine and Omega-3 have also been proven to help several traumas/surgeries
   Note: Vitamin D also prevents the need for various surgeries and Omega-3 prevents many concussions/TBI
Trauma and Surgery is associated with 22 other VitaminDWiki categories
  Such as loading dose 33, Mortality 23, Infant-Child 21 Intervention 19 Cardiovascular 13, Injection 13 in Sept 2022

Did you know?

• You can easily improve outcomes of many planned surgeries by increasing vitamin D ahead of time
  • Cancer surgery is the only known exception - extra Vitamin D is OK only if doctor reduces the chemo doses
• A loading dose of Vitamin D also improves unplanned hospital admissions
• Improvements include
  • Shorter recovery time
  • Shorter ICU time
  • Reduced deaths – in hospital, next month, next year
  • Reduced Sepsis = blood poisoning = infection

---

18+ VitaminDWiki Loading Dose pages have ICU in the title

This list is automatically updated