The importance of the analysis of vitamins a, d and k in the pediatric population in the intensive care unit: commentary on clinical research and literature review

Background: Vitamin A, D and K deficiency is associated with various diseases in the pediactric population and generates negative impact with regard to the outcome of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) stay. This manuscript aimed to report new information on the impact of vitamin A, D and K deficiency in ICU pediatric patients. Methods: The following keywords were used: vitamin A, D and K deficiency, infant’s mortality, pediatric intensive care unit. A research was conducted in Pub Med, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, and Lilacs electronic databases for the studies published up to 1 January 2018. A research was also carried out in the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) up to 1 January 2018. Only articles that best expressed the ratio of vitamin A, D and K deficiency in critically ill patients in ICUs was selected in this study. Results: it was observed a high prevalence of vitamin A, D and K deficiency in pediatric patients in ICUs evaluated in selected studies. Conclusion: For the health professional, it is essential to obtain reliable information on the effect of vitamin A supplementation during the period of hospitalization of the pediatric population in the intensive care unit. Additional studies are needed to assess the potential benefit of optimizing vitamin D status in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). There are still doubts about the potential beneficial or detrimental effects of maximal concentrations of vitamin K in the blood. Further studies on vitamin K metabolism are needed to understand the possible link between the development of intraventricular hemorrhag and genetic variants.