The complications of enteral nutrition in medical wards (Le complicanze della nutrizione enterale nei reparti di medicina)

Introduction. The effects of Enteral Nutrition (EN) in patients unable to feed themselves have been widely explo-red although studies in low-/mean-intensity words are lacking. Aim. To measure the prevalence of EN side effects in medical wards and to explore their risk factors. Metodi. Observational, retrospective study on matched patients. All patients in the medical departments of the Azienda Ospe-daliero-Universitaria Senese were enrolled (81 cases and 162 controls) from 1 August 2018 to 1 September 2019, aged over 50 years and hospitalized for longer than 4 days. The NE side effects such as diarrhea, vomiting, gastric stagna-tion and abdominal pain were collected from clinical records The presence of EN, age of patients, mobilization and use of antibiotics during hospitalization were considered risk fac-tors. Results. The prevalence of diarrhea, vomiting, gastric and abdominal pain ranged from 4.9% to 11.1%. The EN was not a significant risk factor for the onset of gastrointestinal disorders, and these complications were always lower than in the controls. Vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain were more frequently, though not significantly, associated to antibiotic treatments; the age of subjects significantly predicted the diarrhea, showing a protective effect with the age increase. Conclusions. The study shows a low prevalence of diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain com-pared to the literature. These symptoms were not significantly associated to the EN, that cannot be considered a risk factor.