Parenteral nutrition is a life-saving therapy for patients with intestinal failure. It may be associated with transient elevations of liver enzyme concentrations, which return to normal after parenteral nutrition is discontinued. Prolonged parenteral nutrition is associated with complications affecting the hepatobiliary system, such as cholelithiasis, cholestasis, and steatosis. The most common...

There is ongoing debate about the respective roles of enteral and parenteral nutrition. The present short review suggests that these two feeding modalities are not mutually exclusive and that optimal nutritional support may necessitate the concomitant administration of enteral together with parenteral nutrition.

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm infants develops very rapidly from a mild intolerance to enteral feeding into intestinal mucosal hemorrhage, inflammation, and necrosis. We hypothesized that immediate feeding-induced gut responses precede later clinical NEC symptoms in preterm pigs. Fifty-six preterm pigs were fed total parenteral nutrition (TPN) for 48 h followed by enteral feeding f...

CONTEXT Necrotizing pancreatitis is the most serious form of pancreatic inflammatory disease leading to multiorgan failure and a high (15-20%) mortality rate. The poor nutritional and metabolic conditions and secondary bacterial translocation raise the mortality rate even more. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of jejunal feeding in cases of chronic pancreatitis with e...

We report the case of a patient with Crohn's disease receiving short-term postoperative parenteral nutrition supplemented with trace elements who nevertheless became selenium deficient with evidence of a cardiomyopathy. This was fully reversible with oral selenium supplementation. Current parenteral feeding regimes may not contain enough selenium for malnourished patients.

UNLABELLED Very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants suffer marked growth delay despite well-intentioned efforts at combining enteral and parenteral nutrition. Fear of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) has traditionally influenced neonatologists toward delaying and progressing slowly with enteral feeding, while supporting the infant with parenteral nutrition. Current evidence suggests significant benef...

Malnutrition is common in patients who are admitted to hospital, and many patients lose weight during hospital admission. Malnutrition is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Artificial nutrition support benefits nutritional status in malnourished patients, it can lead to reduced morbidity and hospital stay, and more rapid recovery from illness. • Nutritional screening of hospital...

OBJECTIVE Improved survival of preterm infants, beneficial effects of trophic feeding and limited data on timing management of enteral feeding for very low birth weight preterm infants requires more researches to determine the exact starting time and increased volumes. This study aims to compare early (<48 h) versus late (>72h) trophic feeding with respect to important neonatal outcomes. METH...

It is now accepted that, whenever possible, nutritional support should be given enterally, reserving parenteral nutrition for patients with intestinal failure. This is partly because of the many problems associated with parenteral feeding, such as complications of central line insertion and metabolic derangements,1 but recently it has also been appreciated that enteral feeding may have a positi...

Serial 24 hour balance studies of nitrogen and energy were carried out over 10 days in two groups of ventilator dependent preterm infants, of comparable weight and gestational age. In one group (n = 10) a parenteral amino acid source (Vamin 9) was started within 24 hours of birth, and in the other group (n = 11) it was not started until 72 hours. The feeding protocol was otherwise identical. Th...