This article provides a summary of current information on rational postoperative use of the nasogastric tube, based on a review of literature related to postoperative gastrointestinal discomfort and management with the nasogastric tube. Routine gastric decompression after major surgery neither hastens the return of bowel function nor diminishes the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Despite the frequent use of tube-mediated enteral feeding, there is little evidence clarifying best practices pertaining to prolonged nasogastric and gastrostomy tube use in children. At the Montreal Children's Hospital, tube feeding practices are non-standardized and highly variable, with many patients remaining on protracted nasogastric feeds. We aimed to characterize entera...

Rechecking the position of the nasogastric tube after oropharyngeal suction is not common practice. Our patient deteriorated after oropharyngeal suction was performed, whilst nasogastric feeding continued. We suggest that nasogastric feeding should be stopped during oropharyngeal suction and the tube position should be checked every time an oropharyngeal suction is performed.

Nasogastric tubes are often inserted in intensive care settings, the emergency department and hospital wards. Common indications for nasogastric tubes are gastric decompression to palliate bowel obstruction, preventing aspiration in intubated patients and for the delivery of enteral nutrition or medication. A case of pneumothorax following nasogastric tube insertion in a 63-year-old neurosurgic...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE This was a prospective, randomized clinical study to compare the success rate of nasogastric tube insertion by using GlideScope™ visualization versus direct MacIntosh laryngoscope assistance in anesthetized and intubated patients. METHODS Ninety-six ASA I or II patients, aged 18-70 years were recruited and randomized into two groups using either technique. The time ta...

BACKGROUND Routine use of nasogastric tubes after abdominal operations is intended to hasten the return of bowel function, prevent pulmonary complications, diminish the risk of anastomotic leakage, increase patient comfort and shorten hospital stay. This meta-analysis of published studies examines the efficacy of this practice after abdominal surgery in achieving each of these goals. METHOD S...

Nasogastric tube intubation of a patient under general anesthesia with an endotracheal tube in place can pose a challenge to the most experienced anesthesiologist. Physiologic and pathologic variations in a patient's functional anatomy can present further difficulty. While numerous techniques to the difficult nasogastric tube intubation have been described, there is no consensus for a standard ...

Background and Purpose: Inserting a nasogastric tube, though a common clinical procedure with widespread use for critically ill patients, can produce unexpected complications so that tube misplacement into the lungs is a potential complication with serious consequences. The reliability of common bedside methods to differentiate between pulmonary and gastric placement has not been acceptable. Th...