Bedside Placement of Small-Bowel Feeding Tubes In the Intensive Care Unit

<p> <p id="x-x-p-1"> Nutritional support for critically ill or injured patients is a routine and vital part of therapy in the ICU. Placement of small-bowel feeding tubes may be costly and time-consuming and requires specialized technical skills. In this article, the authors provide justification for enteral nutrition and describe several techniques for placement of feeding tubes, and present a modified protocol for placing feeding tubes into the small bowel at the bedside without fluoroscopy. <p id="x-x-p-2"> Nutritional support for critically ill or injured patients is a routine and vital part of therapy in the intensive care unit (ICU). Nutritional therapy is recommended to treat and prevent nutrient deficiencies and malnutrition and to improve patients&rsquo; outcomes. <a href="http://ccn.aacnjournals.org/content/23/1/16.long#ref-1" id="x-x-xref-ref-1-1"> ¹ </a> Nutritional support can be delivered enterally via the gastrointestinal system or parenterally with total parenteral nutrition (TPN). </p> </p></p>