Stephen J Taylor, Kaylee Sayer, Paul White
BACKGROUND: Delayed gastric emptying (DGE) is a major cause of undernutrition that can be overcome using nasointestinal (NI) feeding, but tube placement often fails. We analyse which techniques enable successful NI tube placement. METHODS: Efficacy of tube technique was determined at each of six anatomical points: Nose, nasopharynx-oesophagus, stomach-upper and -lower, duodenum part-1 and intestine. RESULTS: In 913 first NI tube placements, significant associations with tube advancement were found in the pharynx (head tilt, jaw thrust, laryngoscopy), stomach_upper (air insufflation, 10 cm or 20-30 cm flexible tube tip ± reverse Seldinger manoeuvre), stomach_lower (air insufflation, possibly flexible tip and wire stiffener) and duodenum part-1 and beyond part-2 (flexible tip and combinations of micro-advance, slack removal, wire stiffener or prokinetic drugs)...
February 2023: Journal of the Intensive Care Society