Abstract
Objective: To determine whether introduction a new feeding guideline based upon individual gastric emptying times provides a higher proportion of enteral feeding.
Methods: A prospective audit in a 20-bed PICU was conducted one year before (March 2007) and after (March 2009) introduction of the new guideline (March 2008). Data were collected over 4 days per patient on 76 patients in 2007 (37 cardiac, 39 general), and 78 patients in 2009 (39 cardiac, 39 general), comprising 9339 PICU hours. In 2009, the feeding interval was based upon individualised gastric emptying time, calculated after a test feed.
Results: The proportion of potential enteral calories given to cardiac patients increased from 39.8% in 2007 to 60.7% in 2009, p < 0.001). A smaller increase was seen for general patients (62.1% to 66.6%, p < 0.001). The median (interquartile) time from admission to establishing full feeds reduced from 23 (12 - 49) to 13 (8 - 24) hours for cardiac (p = 0.007) and from 17 (8 - 32) to 8 (5 - 20) hours (p = 0.05) for general patients. The impact of the feeding guideline on time to establish full feeds remained significant (p < 0.001) after multivariable adjustment for mortality risk (PIM2), diagnosis, weight and gender. By 2009, the major reasons for not feeding were largely unavoidable (including nil by mouth peri-procedure, gut pathology).
Conclusions: Introduction of a new feed in guideline appeared to result in earlier and more effective establishment of enteral feeding.
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Knight, D., Durward, A., Thruston, I. et al. 76 Efficacy of a Feeding Guideline Based Upon Gastric Emptying. Pediatr Res 68 (Suppl 1), 41–42 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00076
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-00076