Ketogenic Feeding for Muscle Preservation After Trauma (KETO TRAUMA)

September 14, 2026 updated by: Robert T Mankowski, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Ketogenic Feeding to Preserve Muscle Mass in Middle-aged and Older Trauma Injury Patients

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a ketogenic diet, provided as tube feeding, compared with a standard hospital tube feeding, is safe and feasible and helps preserve muscle mass and improve metabolic health in adults aged 55 years and older hospitalized with traumatic injury.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

20

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Alabama
      • Birmingham, Alabama, United States, 35205
        • University of Alabama at Birmingham
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 55 years and older
  • Traumatic injury
  • Expected to survive and at least 10-day stay in the hospital
  • Expected to be enterally fed for at least 10 days
  • Willingness to be randomized to either treatment group
  • Willingness to participate in all study procedures

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Failure to provide informed consent
  • Moribund
  • Vegeterian/vegan
  • Diagnosed dementia
  • Hip fracture, hip or knee replacement, or spinal surgery within past 4 months
  • Simultaneous participation in another intervention trial

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Ketogenic feeding
The ketogenic feeding will have a macronutrient composition of approximately 10% energy from carbohydrates, 25% energy from protein, and 65% energy from fat.
Behavioral: Ketogenic feeding
The ketogenic feeding will have a macronutrient composition of approximately 10% energy from carbohydrates, 25% energy from protein, and 65% energy from fat.
Placebo Comparator: Standard feeding
The participant will receive standard hospital care feeding.
Behavioral: Standard feeding
The participants will receive standard hospital care feeding.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Incidence of Adverse Events
Time Frame: At baseline and 10-day of feeding
Number of adverse events collected using a standardized adverse event reporting form (Unit: Count of events).
At baseline and 10-day of feeding
Adherence to the Intervention
Time Frame: From baseline to 10 days follow-up.
Percentage of prescribed intervention sessions completed, assessed through adherence logs and system usage records (Unit: %)
From baseline to 10 days follow-up.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

November 15, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 31, 2029

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 14, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 14, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

September 18, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 18, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 14, 2026

Last Verified

September 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB-300016623
  • UAB Team Science Grant Program (Other Grant/Funding Number: The University of Alabama at Birmingham)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Subscribe