Numerous procedures have been developed to provide adequate enteral nutrition to patients with gastrointestinal disorders. Previously, operative placement of a feeding gastrostomy or jejunostomy tube was the accepted means of gaining chronic enteral access. However, improved technology and experience with endoscopic techniques have quickly replaced primary operative placement of enteral access....

BACKGROUND A significant number of patients treated for head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) undergo enteral tube feeding. Data suggest that avoiding enteral feeding can prevent long-term tube dependence and disuse of the swallowing mechanism which has been linked to complications such as prolonged dysphagia and esophageal constriction. We examined detailed dosimetric and clinical paramet...

BACKGROUND Early enteral feeding practices are potentially modifiable risk factors for necrotising enterocolitis in very preterm or very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. Observational studies suggest that conservative feeding regimens that include slowly advancing enteral feed volumes reduce the risk of necrotising enterocolitis. However, slow feed advancement may delay establishment of full en...

T he need to avoid prolonged starvation in patients is well recognized. More recently, it has been realized that without intraluminal fuels, intestinal integrity may deteriorate and allow translocation of gut bacteria. One means to combat nutrient deprivation and simultaneously to keep the local defense barrier of the intestine intact is tube feeding, i.e., enteral nutrition. This technique has...

Enteral access is one of the most common procedures performed in abdominal and interventional radiology. The surgical anatomy of the postoperative stomach may, however, make enteral access challenging. This report describes a patient with a pancreaticoduodenectomy complicated by a gastrojejunostomy leak who underwent 2 unsuccessful transoral endoscopic nasojejunal tube placements and 2 failed p...

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of high protein enteral nutrition on protein status in acute stroke patients. The subjects were divided into two groups using block randomisation, i.e. the intervention group that received high protein enteral nutrition (HPEN), and the control group that received enteral hospital diet. Thirty six out of 60 acute stroke patients had complet...

The nutrition dose truly absorbed by a patient is crucial information in the management or the investigation of nutrition during critical illness. In the present issue of Critical Care, assessment of nutritional losses in stools was studied. These losses together with enteral nutrition lost in gastric fluids and enteral nutrition prescribed but never infused make up the difference between the d...

Enhancement of depressed plasma concentrations of glutamine and arginine is associated with better clinical outcome. Supplementation of glutamine might be a way to provide the patient with glutamine, and also arginine, because glutamine provides the kidney with citrulline, from which the kidney produces arginine when plasma levels of arginine are low. The aim of the present study was to investi...

Background Commercial enteral formulas are generally recommended for gastrostomy feeding in patients with severe neurologic impairment. However, pureed food diets are still widely used and even gaining popularity among certain groups. We tried to compare the effectiveness of gastrostomy feeding for treatment of severe malnutrition with either enteral formulas or pureed feeds. Patients and met...

background: feeding intolerance is prevalent in very low birth weight (vlbw) neonates and is a barrier for better and faster growth in these neonates. some studies have supported the administration of oral probiotic to decrease feeding intolerance. the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of probiotic on feeding intolerance in vlbw neonates. methods: this randomized clinical trial study...