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Early Tube Feeding Improves Nutritional Outcomes in Children with Neurological Disabilities: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Tube feeding is a life-saving treatment for children with neurological disabilities (ND), who often suffer from malnutrition and feeding disorders. Nonetheless, it is still not widely used. Our aim was to evaluate the outcomes of exclusive tube feeding in a cohort of ND children. All consecutive ND...

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Autores principales: Dipasquale, Valeria, Cucinotta, Ugo, Alibrandi, Angela, Laganà, Francesca, Ramistella, Vincenzo, Romano, Claudio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10343860/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37447202
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu15132875
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author Dipasquale, Valeria
Cucinotta, Ugo
Alibrandi, Angela
Laganà, Francesca
Ramistella, Vincenzo
Romano, Claudio
author_facet Dipasquale, Valeria
Cucinotta, Ugo
Alibrandi, Angela
Laganà, Francesca
Ramistella, Vincenzo
Romano, Claudio
author_sort Dipasquale, Valeria
collection PubMed
description Tube feeding is a life-saving treatment for children with neurological disabilities (ND), who often suffer from malnutrition and feeding disorders. Nonetheless, it is still not widely used. Our aim was to evaluate the outcomes of exclusive tube feeding in a cohort of ND children. All consecutive ND children who started tube feeding at our center within the last 5 years were included in this retrospective study. Weight-for-age, body mass index (BMI), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) Z-scores, and symptoms were collected at baseline (V0), 6 (V1), and 12 months (V2) after gastrostomy placement. Fifty children (62% males) were included. The ND-underlying disease was genetic (n = 29, 58%), hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (n = 17, 34%), or metabolic (n = 4, 8%). Indications for tube feeding were malnutrition (n = 35, 70%), recurrent respiratory infections (n = 11, 22%), or both (n = 4, 8%). Enteral formulae were polymeric (n = 29, 58%), semi-elemental (n = 17, 34%), hypercaloric (n = 3, 6%), or elemental (n = 1, 2%). Homemade blended feed was offered to three children (6%) in addition to the formula. Weight and BMI increased over the study period. Except for constipation, all symptoms (cough, vomiting, and diarrhea) improved at 6 and 12 months (p < 0.05). Non-serious complications (n = 8; track disruption, granuloma, and skin infection) were observed. Longer disease duration (p < 0.001) at the start of tube feeding was associated with the absence of normalization of nutritional status (BMI Z-score > 2 SD) at 12 months. Tube feeding with commercially available enteral formulae should be started as early as possible for better outcomes.
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spelling pubmed-103438602023-07-14 Early Tube Feeding Improves Nutritional Outcomes in Children with Neurological Disabilities: A Retrospective Cohort Study Dipasquale, Valeria Cucinotta, Ugo Alibrandi, Angela Laganà, Francesca Ramistella, Vincenzo Romano, Claudio Nutrients Article Tube feeding is a life-saving treatment for children with neurological disabilities (ND), who often suffer from malnutrition and feeding disorders. Nonetheless, it is still not widely used. Our aim was to evaluate the outcomes of exclusive tube feeding in a cohort of ND children. All consecutive ND children who started tube feeding at our center within the last 5 years were included in this retrospective study. Weight-for-age, body mass index (BMI), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) Z-scores, and symptoms were collected at baseline (V0), 6 (V1), and 12 months (V2) after gastrostomy placement. Fifty children (62% males) were included. The ND-underlying disease was genetic (n = 29, 58%), hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (n = 17, 34%), or metabolic (n = 4, 8%). Indications for tube feeding were malnutrition (n = 35, 70%), recurrent respiratory infections (n = 11, 22%), or both (n = 4, 8%). Enteral formulae were polymeric (n = 29, 58%), semi-elemental (n = 17, 34%), hypercaloric (n = 3, 6%), or elemental (n = 1, 2%). Homemade blended feed was offered to three children (6%) in addition to the formula. Weight and BMI increased over the study period. Except for constipation, all symptoms (cough, vomiting, and diarrhea) improved at 6 and 12 months (p < 0.05). Non-serious complications (n = 8; track disruption, granuloma, and skin infection) were observed. Longer disease duration (p < 0.001) at the start of tube feeding was associated with the absence of normalization of nutritional status (BMI Z-score > 2 SD) at 12 months. Tube feeding with commercially available enteral formulae should be started as early as possible for better outcomes. MDPI 2023-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC10343860/ /pubmed/37447202 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu15132875 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Dipasquale, Valeria
Cucinotta, Ugo
Alibrandi, Angela
Laganà, Francesca
Ramistella, Vincenzo
Romano, Claudio
Early Tube Feeding Improves Nutritional Outcomes in Children with Neurological Disabilities: A Retrospective Cohort Study
title Early Tube Feeding Improves Nutritional Outcomes in Children with Neurological Disabilities: A Retrospective Cohort Study
title_full Early Tube Feeding Improves Nutritional Outcomes in Children with Neurological Disabilities: A Retrospective Cohort Study
title_fullStr Early Tube Feeding Improves Nutritional Outcomes in Children with Neurological Disabilities: A Retrospective Cohort Study
title_full_unstemmed Early Tube Feeding Improves Nutritional Outcomes in Children with Neurological Disabilities: A Retrospective Cohort Study
title_short Early Tube Feeding Improves Nutritional Outcomes in Children with Neurological Disabilities: A Retrospective Cohort Study
title_sort early tube feeding improves nutritional outcomes in children with neurological disabilities: a retrospective cohort study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10343860/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37447202
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu15132875
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