Initiation of enteral and parenteral feeding and why we interrupt them in the critical care setting

Results 66% of our patients were started on a regime within 48 hours of their CCU admission. 34% started their feed after >48 hours. We found 8 types of interruption, with 4 being more frequent. The most common was related to nasogastric (NG) medications. The second was due to poor absorption, indicated by high aspirates and vomiting. Imaging and procedures came after. We calculated the mean duration for each interruption type. This showed high vasopressor requirement caused the longest interruption, however this pertains to only 2 patients. Absorption issues were the next longest duration of interruption with a mean time of 9.65 hours. We found a large amount of interruptions not documented. Days 1 and 2 of feeding were the least interrupted. Day 5 was the mode and 12% of patients managed 7 uninterrupted days of enteral/parenteral feed.