Procedure for determining the initiation of tube feeding in children in an intensive care unit
Uglitskikh, A.K.; Dibrivnyĭ, G.S.; Pykov, M.I.; Kon', I.Ia.; Ostreĭkov, I.F.; Nikitin, V.V.; Bagaev, V.G.
Anesteziologiia i Reanimatologiia 2006(1): 53-56
2006
ISSN/ISBN: 0201-7563 PMID: 16613047 Document Number: 603658
A procedure is proposed to determine the timing of tube feeding in children treated in an intensive care unit, which records the hypertonia of the pyloric sphincter and consists in the determination the time of gastric administration of distilled water before its evacuation into the duodenal lumen (water evacuation test) visualized in the real-time mode through abdominal ultrasonography. The proposed procedure was successfully applied to 42 children aged 3 months to 14 years who had severe brain injury, appendicular peritonitis, polytrauma, and polysegmental pneumonias. This determining procedure makes it possible to exclude radiation exposure in patients treated in intensive care units and to improve the outcomes of treatment, by prescribing the artificial feeding, that is adequate to the patients' status, in the periods optimal for each specific clinical case.