Medical nutrition therapy: Enteral nutrition *** Flashcards
How is an inadequate oral food intake defined?
- When a patient is unable to eat for > 7 days.
- When the intake is less than 60% of recommended intake for > 10 days.
It’s a state resulting from lack of intake or uptake of nutrition that leads to altered body composition (decreased fat free mass and body cell mass) leading to diminished physical and mental function and impaired clinical outcome from disease:
Malnutrition
What are some options to improve the nutritional intake?
- Dietary counselling, conventional food, and oral nutritional supplements (ONS).
- Tube feeding: May be required when patients are unable to consume sufficient nutrition via the oral route.
- Parenteral nutrition: Will be needed in cases of severe gut dysfunction, when nutrition given orally or via tube feeding is not an option.
What nutritional management is used in the oral strategies?
Food and oral nutritional supplements.
What nutritional management is used in the enteral strategies?
Tube feeding.
What nutritional management is used in the IV strategies?
Parenteral nutrition.
What factors must be taken into account to decide which method of nutritional management to use?
- The goals of care.
- The patient’s nutritional needs.
- Ability to eat.
- Diagnosis and prognosis.
- Ability to adhere to the intervention.
What are the four generalized levels of protection for the GI tract?
- The stabilizing influence of the normal intestinal bacterial flora.
- Mechanical defenses.
- Immunologic defenses.
- The gut-liver axis.
What are the important advantages of enteral feeding?
- The stimulation of the intestinal cells to preserve its integrity and the gut barrier function.
- It is economic, safe, efficient and it has been found to improve the patient’s outcome.
- Maintains the barrier function to avoid the bacterial translocation.
What are the indications for enteral nutrition?
Patient with difficulty eating for whatever reason:
- Unconscious patient.
- Swallowing disorder.
- Partial intestinal failure.
- Physiological anorexia.
- Increased nutritional requirements.
- Psychological problems: Severe depression or anorexia nervosa.
Nutrition therapy given via a tube or stoma into the intestinal tract distal to the oral cavity, indicated when a patient has difficulty eating for whatever reason:
Enteral tube feeding.
What are the contraindications for enteral nutrition?
Insufficient gastrointestinal function, or severe metabolic and circulatory instability.
What are the different routes of enteral feeding?
- Nasoenteric tube.
- Gastrostomy tube.
- Jejunostomy tube.
How is short-term enteral nutrition usually defined as?
Use less than 4 weeks.
How is long-term enteral nutrition usually defined as?
As use for more than 4 weeks.
Which option for enteral access feeding would be best suited with normal gastric motility for short term?
Nasogastric
Which option for enteral access feeding would be best suited with normal gastric motility for long term?
Gastrostomy
Which option for enteral access feeding would be best suited without normal gastric motility for short term?
Nasoduodenal or nasojejunal.