The practice of administering drugs via enteral feeding tubes has become complex. The range of enteral feeding tubes and medicines has increased dramatically in recent years and this has led to a gap between clinical practice and best practice.

The preterm intestine is immature and responds differently to total parenteral nutrition (TPN) and enteral nutrition, compared with the term intestine. We hypothesised that in preterms, diet composition and feeding route affect mucosal morphology, enterocyte mitosis and apoptosis, and the distribution of laminin-1, fibronectin and collagen IV (extracellular matrix proteins (ECMP)). Preterm pigl...

ENTERAL nutrition is the preferred route for providing nutrition support when the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is functional. Compared with conventional central venous feeding, enteral feeding is associated with fewer serious complications, is more nutritionally complete, is more effective in maintaining or restoring host immune response, and takes advantage of normal physiologic and metabolic p...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this retrospective study was to analyse the occurrence of gastrointestinal side effects in enterally fed ITU patients. METHODS We analysed the records of 195 ITU patients fed enterally, over at least five days, with commercial mixtures administered as 20-h infusions. Gastric retention, the number of defecations, and incidents requiring discontinuation of enteral feed...

BACKGROUND Adequate nutritional support for patients undergoing major surgery significantly affects postoperative recovery. Data on enteral feeding after liver transplantation (LT) are scarce. The aim of this work was to determine the efficacy and complications of feeding tubes inserted with the use of fluoroscopic assistance, endoscopic assistance, or transperitoneal jejunostomy in patients wh...

Diarrhoea complicating enteral feeding is a common clinical problem affecting up to 25% of patients. Its pathogenesis remains unknown. A new technique of human in vivo segmental colonic perfusion was used to investigate colonic water and electrolyte movement in response to enteral feeding. Four groups of studies were performed in which low and high load polymeric enteral diet infusions were und...

BACKGROUND A significant number of patients treated for head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) undergo enteral tube feeding. Data suggest that avoiding enteral feeding can prevent long-term tube dependence and disuse of the swallowing mechanism which has been linked to complications such as prolonged dysphagia and esophageal constriction. We examined detailed dosimetric and clinical paramet...

AIMS To evaluate whether serial Doppler measurements of superior mesenteric artery (SMA) blood flow velocity after the first enteral feed could predict early tolerance to enteral feeding in preterm infants. METHODS When clinicians decided to start enteral feeds, Doppler ultrasound blood flow velocity in the SMA was determined before and after a test feed of 0.5 ml milk. The number of days tak...

INTRODUCTION The incidence of malnutrition in hospitalized patients is reported to be high. In particular, patients with esophageal cancer are prone to malnutrition, due to preoperative digestive system dysfunctions and short-term non-oral feeding postoperatively. Selection of an appropriate method for feeding in the postoperative period is important in these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS I...

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...