PURPOSE An overview of enteral feeding tubes, drug administration techniques, considerations for dosage form selection, common drug interactions with enteral formulas, and methods to minimize tube occlusion is given. SUMMARY Enteral nutrition through a feeding tube is the preferred method of nutrition support in patients who have a functioning gastrointestinal tract but who are unable to be f...

Resumo O número de idosos e, consequentemente, a incidência doenças crônicas não transmissíveis, entre elas demência, têm aumentado exponencialmente. A demência leva perda progressiva funcionalidade, incluindo complicações relacionadas com alimentação. Este artigo traz resultados revisão integrativa sobre as evidências científicas atuais da terapia nutricional enteral em pacientes cuidados pali...

The postprandial motor response to enteral feeds of the small intestine of preterm infants is dependent on the bolus volume of feed that the infants receive and the number of days over which enteral feeds have been given. The postconceptional age of the infant is not an important determinant. The early introduction of enteral nutrition to preterm infants is therefore likely to enhance the motor...

Preterm neonates have an immature gut and metabolism and may benefit from total parenteral nutrition (TPN) before enteral food is introduced. Conversely, delayed enteral feeding may inhibit gut maturation and sensitize to necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Intestinal mass and NEC lesions were first recorded in preterm pigs fed enterally (porcine colostrum, bovine colostrum, or formula for 20-40 h...

A serious complication seen in critically ill patients is the solidification of enteral nutrition causing gastrointestinal obstruction. It has been suggested that enteral nutrition enriched with insoluble fibers may increase the risk of this complication. Therefore, we investigate the effect of soluble and insoluble dietary fibers on the coagulation of a casein-based enteral nutrition in an art...

EARLY ENTERAL NUTRITION IS THE standard of care in critically ill patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation. However, numerous studies have shown that early enteral nutrition is frequently not used or associated with inadequate calorie delivery. The main reason for nonuse is gastrointestinal intolerance to enteral nutrition, which has been ascribed to gastroparesis with increased gastr...

Contamination of enteral diets represents a high risk of compromising the patient's medical condition. To assess the microbiological quality and aseptic conditions in the preparation and administration of handmade and industrialized enteral diets offered in a hospital in the Valley of Jequitinhonha, MG, Brazil, we performed a microbiological analysis of 50 samples of diets and 27 samples of sur...

Background: The current trend in postoperative nutrition is to promote a normal oral diet as early as possible. However, postoperative ileus is a frequent and common problem after major abdominal surgery. This study was designed to investigate whether early enteral nutrition (EEN), as a bridge to a normal diet, can reduce postoperative ileus. Methods: Patients undergoing major rectal surgery fo...

BACKGROUND Accidental connection of an enteral system to an intravenous (IV) system frequently results in the death of the patient. Misconnections are commonly attributed to the presence of universal connectors found in the majority of patient care tubing systems. Universal connectors allow for tubing misconnections between physiologically incompatible systems. METHODS The purpose of this rev...

Protein digestibility and quality of six enteral nutrition products sold in Canada were studied by rat balance and growth methods. Casein+L-methionine, 0.2 g/100 g diet (control) and six enteral products (freeze-dried) were fed as the sole source of protein in diets containing 8.61-9.12 g/100 g protein (N x 6.25) to weanling and 18-mo-old rats for a period of 2 and 1 wk, respectively. A protein...