Treatment
In critically ill patients admitted to an intensive care unit, if phosphate drops to below 0.65 mmol/L (2.0 mg/dL) from a previously normal level within three days of starting enteral or parenteral nutrition, caloric intake should be reduced to 480 kcals per day for at least two days while electrolytes are replaced. Daily doses of thiamine, vitamin B complex (strong) and a multivitamin and mineral preparation are strongly recommended. Blood biochemistry should be monitored regularly until it is stable. Although clinical trials are lacking in patients other than those admitted to intensive care, it is commonly recommended that energy intake should remain lower than that normally required for the first 3–5 days of treatment of refeeding syndrome for all patients. History
In his 5th century BC work On Fleshes (De Carnibus), Hippocrates writes, "if a person goes
seven days without eating or drinking anything, in this period most die; but there are some who survive that time but still die, and others are persuaded not to starve themselves to death but to eat and drink: however, the cavity no longer admits anything because the jejunum (nêstis) has grown together in that many days, and these people too die." Though Hippocrates misidentifies the cause of death, this passage likely represents an early description of refeeding syndrome. The Roman Historian Flavius Josephus writing in the first century described classic symptoms of the syndrome among survivors of the siege of Jerusalem.
He described the death of those who overindulged in food after the famine, whereas those who ate at a more restrained pace survived.There were numerous cases of refeeding syndrome in the Siege of Leningrad during World War II, with Soviet civilians trapped in the city having becoming malnourished due to the German blockade. (Machado).A common error, repeated in multiple papers, is that "The syndrome was first described after World War II in Americans who, held by the Japanese as prisoners of war, had become malnourished during captivity and who were then released to the care of United States personnel in the Philippines." However, closer inspection of the 1951 paper by Schnitker reveals the prisoners under study were not American POWs but Japanese soldiers who, already malnourished, surrendered in the Philippines during 1945, after the war was over.It is difficult to ascertain when the syndrome was first discovered and named, but it is likely the associated electrolyte disturbances were identified perhaps in Holland, the Netherlands during the closing months of World War II. See also
Minnesota Starvation Experiment

References
Bibliography
Shils, M.E., Shike, M., Ross, A.C., Caballero, B. & Cousins, R.J.  (2006). Modern nutrition in health and disease, 10th ed. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. Baltimore, MD. Mahan, L.K. & Escott-Stump, S.E. (2004) Krauses Food, Nutrition, & Diet Therapy, 11th ed. Saunders, Philadelphia, PA. Hearing S (2004). "Refeeding syndrome: Is underdiagnosed and undertreated, but treatable". BMJ. 328 (7445): 908–9. doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7445.908. PMC 390152. PMID 15087326. Crook M, Hally V, Panteli J (2001). "The importance of the refeeding syndrome". Nutrition. 17 (7–8): 632–7.