Evaluation of a pump in enteral tube feeding in terms of patient and staff acceptance: a retrospective study.
A retrospective study of 39 patients fed via an enteral tube was carried out using data from patients records. An enteral feeding pump was available for all patients. Its use was evaluated in terms of patient and staff acceptance of the technique. The pump was shown to be particularly suited to patients following gastrointestinal surgery and trauma in whom tube feeding might be expected to produce gastrointestinal side-effects. Patients with lower nutritional requirements and without gastrointestinal trauma do not require such accurate flow control and for non-clinical reasons an alternative technique such as gravity drip feed or bolus feeding may be preferred. The conclusions which can be drawn from a study of this nature are limited but it does draw attention to the importance of considering, in addition to the expected clinical tolerance, the acceptance by patient and staff of the technique for the individual.
D001290:Attitude; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003422:Critical Care; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies