Enteral nutrition access devices

Abstract

During the past decade a concerted effort has been made to use enteral nutrition instead of parenteral nutrition for hospitalized patients. Enteral nutrition has major advantages over parenteral nutrition in terms of cost and fewer serious complications. A clinician interested in initiating enteral nutrition may be limited by a lack of familiarity with the variety of options for enteral access and the difficulty of choosing among them. This paper reviews the different enteral access routes and devices available to the clinician.