Intervention Patients were assigned to receive intensive (n=765) or conventional (n=783) insulin treatment. Intensive treatment was insulin infusion that was started if the blood glucose concentration was > 6.1 mmol/l, and was adjusted to maintain a blood glucose concentration of 4.4–6.1 mmol/l (maximum insulin dose 50 IU/h). Conventional treatment was continuous insulin infusion by a pump that...

Meeting the caloric needs of the baby in surgically repaired proximal intestinal atresias is a challenge. Total parenteral nutrition (TPN) is not readily available everywhere, especially in the resource crunched set-ups, besides sepsis being a prohibitive accompaniment of TPN. Technical difficulties of performing feeding jejunostomy in a small baby, along with added complications of a second su...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article is to review the facilities of early enteral nutrition in critically ill patients. DATA SOURCES Review articles as well as original papers are the main sources for this contribution. SELECTION CRITERIA Pathophysiologic conditions of intestinal substrate assimilation during hypermetabolism are described. The resulting consequences for enteral alimentatio...

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENTERAL NUTRITION FORMULA COMPOSITION, FEEDING TUBE PLACEMENT SITE, AND THE START OF ENTERAL FEEDINGS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF VENTILATOR ASSOCIATED EVENT IN AN ADULT INTENSIVE CARE UNIT by Jessica M. Alexander Background: Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is a major cause of morbidity, longer intensive care unit (ICU) stay, increased duration of mechanical ventilation...

AIM Retrospective analysis of experience with management of external duodenal fistula (EDF) without using total parenteral nutrition (TPN). METHOD Medical records of 31 patients with EDF following closure of duodenal ulcer perforation, treated over a 7-year period (1994-2001), were studied. Twenty-one patients (68%) had evidence of sepsis at presentation or during the course of treatment. Non...

BACKGROUND Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), or intractable vomiting during pregnancy, is the single most frequent cause of hospital admission in early pregnancy. HG has a major impact on maternal quality of life and has repeatedly been associated with poor pregnancy outcome such as low birth weight. Currently, women with HG are admitted to hospital for intravenous fluid replacement, without receivi...

We describe two patients, with no previous history of vascular problems but poor lung function, who experienced septic shock due to bowel ischemia. Both were fed an enteral formula rich in fiber using a feeding tube and experienced septic shock with regular enteral feeding. Surgical finding showed hemorrhagic ischemia in the bowel. The pathologic finding suggests these changes may have been due...

OBJECTIVE To identify clinical factors associated with enteral feeding tube placement in a head and neck cancer population. DESIGN A self-administered survey was given to patients being treated for head and neck cancer while they were waiting to be seen in 1 of 4 otolaryngology clinics. The post hoc analysis presented here combines survey and chart review data to determine clinical and demogr...

Severe undernutrition nearly always leads to marked changes in body spaces (e.g., alterations of intra-extracellular water) and in body masses and composition (e.g., overall and compartmental stores of phosphate, potassium, and magnesium). In patients with severe undernutrition it is almost always necessary to use oral nutrition support and/or artificial nutrition, besides ordinary food; entera...

background: necrotizing enterocolitis (nec) is one of the most destructive diseases associated with conditions of neonatal prematurity. supplementation with enteral prebiotics may reduce the incidence of nec, especially in infants who fed exclusively with breast-milk. therefore, we compared the efficacy and safety of enteral supplementation of a prebiotic mixture (short chain galacto-oligosacch...