Parenteral Nutrition Name may seem strange, but the meaning is simple: intravenous feeding. That is, a probe that manages the nutrients directly in the bloodstream is used, without the need for the digestive tract (mouth, stomach, intestines, among other organs).
“It is done through specific formulas adapted to the needs of each person according to the diseases presented,” explains gastroenterologist Leonardo da Cruz Peixoto, in an interview with CNN.
When is parenteral nutrition required?
Peixoto explains that parenteral nutrition is an alternative when the patient cannot use the digestive tract to ease or need longer fasting. “It is to be situations where the digestive tract is not able to absorb food as in extensive inflammatory diseases in the intestine, when we cannot stimulate pancreatic secretions such as severe acute pancreatitis or situations where gastrointestinal transit is compromised as in occlusions or intestinal subocolusions in which intestinal rest is important for the restoration of the condition.”
In the recent case of former President Jair Bolsonaro, for example, the intestinal obstruction he presents from preventing oral digestion from completing, which requires parenteral nutrition to see if the picture is resolved. “To understand if the obstruction is temporary or definitive, the patient must be kept for a while in ‘fasting’ of solid foods and some spontaneously improve, and others will need to do a surgical treatment,” says gastroenterologist Alexandre Carlos, assistant doctor of the Gastroenterology Department of the Hospital das Clínicas de São Paulo (HC-FMUSP).
There are other situations where intravenous feeding is a good option, such as:
- Abdominal surgeries;
- Intestinal ischemia;
- Intestinal inflammatory diseases;
- High debt digestive fistulas;
- CTI patients under certain conditions;
- Metabolic ileum;
- Serious enteritis;
- Extreme prematurity.
Parenteral Nutrition Complications
Among the risks of parenteral nutrition we have:
- Infections;
- Thrombosis;
- Metabolic imbalances;
- Intestinal atrophy;
- Gallbladder inflammation.
When can the patient return to normal feeding?
Return to oral feeding depends on the resolution of the initial condition, as Peixoto explains. Generally, doctors perceive improvements in symptoms such as nausea, pain and abdominal distension, and “reappearance of intestinal movements that can be alerted by the medical team, gases and return of appetite”, lists the expert.
See more: Bolsonaro says he should undergo surgery
This content was originally published in parenteral nutrition: Understand when probe feed is required on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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