34: Comparing Two Methods of Enteral Nutrition in Terms of Their Complications and the Time Needed to Reach Goal Calorie in Patients Hospitalized in Icu

Background and aims: Nutrition support and noticing the required goal calories in patients having critical conditions are essential aspects of medical care in preventing malnutrition in these patients. Methods: This research is a clinical trial which was done on 60 Patients aging between 18 to 65 years old hospitalized in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Shiraz’s Namazee hospital, South West of Iran, during April to September 2015. Patients were separated randomly into two groups. Enteral nutrition was done with infusion pump for one of the groups and intermittently for the other one. The data was collected for 7 days by a check list regarding enteral nutrition method, complications and the time needed to reach goal calories. Data analysis was done using SPSS-18 software through Chi-square and t-student test. Results: The results of this study showed that there was a significant difference of the mean time needed to reach target goal calorie between the continuous and intermittent nutrition methods (P<0.05), so the time was less in continuous infusion method. But, there was no significant difference between the GI complications of the two groups (P>0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that continuous enteral nutrition method has better outcomes in Patients hospitalized in ICU than intermittent method.