Early diagnosis followed by primary repair is the best treatment for spontaneous esophageal perforation. However, the appropriate management of esophageal leakage after surgical repair is still controversial. Recently, the successful adaptation of vacuum-assisted closure therapy, which is well established for the treatment of chronic surface wounds, has been demonstrated for esophageal perforat...

The requirements of growth and organ development create a challenge in nutritional management of newborn infants, especially premature newborn and intestinal-failure infants. Since their feeding may increase the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis, some high-risk infants receive a small volume of feeding or parenteral nutrition (PN) without enteral feeding. This review summarizes the current rese...

J INTRODUCTION Tube feeding has been practiced for more than 400 years (1). In addition to feeding, gastrointestinal (GI) access can be used for decompression in cases of enteral obstruction. Temporary access can be achieved with a nasogastric (NG), oral gastric (OG), nasojejunal (NJ), or oral jejunal (OJ) feeding tube. These tubes can be placed “blindly” at the bedside, with the use of image g...

The benefits and risks of nutritional therapies in the prevention and management of infectious diseases in the developed world are reviewed. There is strong evidence that early enteral feeding of patients prevents infections in a variety of traumatic and surgical illnesses. There is, however, little support for similar early feeding in medical illnesses. Parenteral nutrition increases the risk ...

Introduction. In patients with acute pancreatitis (AP), nutritional support is required if normal food cannot be tolerated within several days. Enteral nutrition is preferred over parenteral nutrition. We reviewed the literature about enteral nutrition in AP. Methods. A MEDLINE search of the English language literature between 1999-2009. Results. Nasogastric tube feeding appears to be safe and ...

Enteral tube feeding is common in both the hospital and community environment; however, patients can suffer alterations in faecal output that can have serious clinical sequelae. Problems associated with accurate characterisation of faecal output and definition of diarrhoea impede the comparison of research studies and prevent standardised assessment of therapeutic interventions in clinical prac...

BACKGROUND McKeown-type esophagectomy combined with retrosternal reconstruction is a common surgical treatment for esophageal cancer. Various enteral feeding options are available post-esophagectomy, but no definitive preference exists. METHOD "Retrosternal Route Gastrostomy Feeding (RGF)" was developed as an alternative enteral feeding approach that requires few additional surgical intervent...

BACKGROUND & AIMS n-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids may improve cardiovascular outcomes in elderly. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of feeding elderly patients exclusively with an n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid-enriched diet specifically designed for enteral nutrition for 6 months, evaluating modifications in plasma fatty acid profile and some biomarkers of insulin resistance (I...

BACKGROUND The pathogenesis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is multifactorial. In addition to prenatal inflammation, postnatal malnutrition also affects lung development. METHODS A retrospective study was performed to analyse during the first two weeks of life the total, enteral and parenteral nutrition of premature infants (<31 weeks, birth weight ≤1500 g) born between 08/04 and 12/06. ...

Elderly nursing home patients may suffer from inadequate oral nutritional intake for a variety of reasons. In some of them, nutritional status cannot be maintained without the use of enteral feeding. Nasogastric tube feeding is associated with significant patient discomfort, and may lead to significant complications. Thus, in those who require long-term enteral tube feeding, a gastrostomy tube ...