Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more infromation

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Nutrition in Clinical Practice
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Metheny, N. A.
Right arrow Articles by Lengettie, E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Metheny, N. A.
Right arrow Articles by Lengettie, E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Clinical Research: Indicators of Feeding-Tube Placement in Neonates

Norma A. Metheny, RN, PhD, FAAN

Saint Louis University School of Nursing, Missouri

Rosemary Eikov, RN, MSN, CRNP

Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition

Vonnie Rountree, RN, MSN

Department of Nursing, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Evie Lengettie, RN, MSN

Department of Nursing, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This article presents a literature review of methods used to determine feeding-tube placement in neonates and describes a small clinical study in which several methods that were tested in adults were also evaluated in neonates. According to the literature review, clinicians usually determine feeding-tube placement in neonates by one or more of the following methods: auscultating for insufflated air, testing the pH of feeding-tube aspirates, or radiography. The study reported in this article consisted of describing the pH as well as the enzyme and bilirubin content of 90 feeding-tube aspirates from 39 acutely ill neonates. Eighty-eight of the aspirates were from nasogastric or orogastric tubes and 2 were from nasointestinal tubes. Three-fourths of the infants were receiving ranitidine, about half had fasted for 4 or more hours, and about half were receiving continuous feedings. As expected, the mean gastric pH was substantially lower than the mean intestinal pH (4.32 vs 7.80, respectively). The neonates' mean fasting gastric pepsin concentration (76.1 µ/ml) was much lower than that of adults. The two specimens of intestinal fluid contained substantial quantities of trypsin and bilirubin, similar to levels reported in adults. Because of the limited sample of intestinal specimens, it was not possible to determine the ability of pH and concentrations of enzymes and bilirubin in the aspirates to distinguish between feeding-tube location in the stomach and small intestine in neonates.

Nutrition in Clinical Practice, Vol. 14, No. 6, 307-314 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/088453369901400606
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Nutr Clin PractHome page
N. A. Metheny and K. L. Meert
Monitoring Feeding Tube Placement
Nutr Clin Pract, October 1, 2004; 19(5): 487 - 495.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]