Half-solidification of nutrient does not decrease gastro-esophageal reflux events in patients fed via percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy.
OBJECTIVE
Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube feeding is widely used for patients with swallowing dysfunction, and aspiration pneumonitis induced by reflux of gastric contents is one of the most frequent and life-threatening events in such patients. We performed this study to clarify the effect of half-solidification of nutrient on gastro-esophageal reflux (GER) of acidic and non-acidic gastric contents in patients with PEG.


METHODS
The subjects were 14 elderly patients undergoing PEG feeding (female: 11, mean age 83.1 y). Twenty-four hour esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance (MII) and pH (MII-pH) monitoring were performed during and after feeding with half-solid and liquid nutrient, respectively. The numbers of GER events during 4h after the start of feeding were compared.


RESULTS
There was no significant difference in the total number of GER events between half-solid nutrient feeding and liquid nutrient feeding (5.6+/-1.5 vs. 6.6+/-1.5). The number of acid reflux events after half-solid nutrient feeding tended to be higher than that after liquid nutrient feeding (1.9+/-1.1 vs. 1.4+/-0.8).


CONCLUSIONS
Half-solidification of nutrition does not appear to be effective for preventing GER caused by liquid PEG feeding.
Adachi
Kyoichi
K
Department of Clinical Nursing, Shimane University Faculty of Medicine, 89-1 Enya-cho, Izumo-shi, Shimane 693-8501, Japan. kadachi@med.shimane-u.ac.jp
Furuta
Kenji
K
Morita
Terumi
T
Nakata
Shuji
S
Ohara
Shunji
S
Tanimura
Takashi
T
Koshino
Kenji
K
Miki
Masaharu
M
Ishimura
Norihisa
N
Inoue
Yukiko
Y
Ryuko
Kanji
K
Umegae
Nobuyuki
N
Ohhata
Syuzo
S
Katoh
Setsushi
S
Yamamoto
Kazuhiko
K
Nariai
Yukiko
Y
Hashimoto
Yohko
Y
Sumi
Asako
A
Kawaguchi
Mikiko
M
Kinoshita
Yoshikazu
Y
D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000150:complications; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000209:etiology; D017097:Electric Impedance; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005502:Food / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000150:complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005774:Gastrostomy; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008297:Male; D011015:Pneumonia, Aspiration / Q000517:prevention & control; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors; D014783:Viscosity