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. 2023 Jan 17;15(3):490.
doi: 10.3390/nu15030490.

Early Naso-Gastric Feeding and Outcomes of Anorexia Nervosa Patients

Maria Rosaria Marchili  1 , Antonella Diamanti  2 , Valeria Zanna  3 , Giulia Spina  1 , Cristina Mascolo  4 , Marco Roversi  4 , Benedetta Guarnieri  4 , Gianluca Mirra  4 , Giulia Testa  4 , Umberto Raucci  1 , Antonino Reale  1 , Alberto Villani  1   5
Affiliations

Early Naso-Gastric Feeding and Outcomes of Anorexia Nervosa Patients

Maria Rosaria Marchili et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Nutritional rehabilitation with weight restoration is an important step in patients hospitalised for anorexia nervosa (AN). Naso-gastric feeding (NGF) should be considered when oral nutrition (OF) and oral nutritional supplementation (ONS) are insufficient. We evaluated the role of NGF on short- and long-term outcomes, considering weight gain, the length of hospitalisation (LOS) and the time to relapse. We report on the characteristics of patients under 18 years of age with AN admitted to the Department of Emergency and Acceptance of the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, between March 2019 and August 2022. Three hundred and fifteen patients were enrolled. We compared patients treated with NGF (group A) and patients without NGF (group B). Group A was characterised by a significantly lower BMI on admission and discharge, more frequent use of inpatient psychotropic therapy (IPDT) and longer hospital stay. The time to relapse was significantly longer in group A compared to group B. An early NGF setting correlates with a longer time to relapse and may be associated with a shorter LOS. A high caloric intake with a balanced nutritional formula provided by NGF allows an earlier recovery. The main advantages of this approach could be the rapid discharge of patients and a more effective psychological and social recovery.

Keywords: anorexia nervosa; children; eating disorders; enteral nutrition.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflict of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Boxplot of BMI on admission (percentile) stratified by grade of thinness. Hollow circles are outliers (more than 1.5 × IQR from the first and third quartile) and asterisks are extreme values (more than 3.0 × IQR from the first and third quartile).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effects of NGF (A) and IPDT (B) on BMI percentile increases. Hollow circles are outliers (more than 1.5 × IQR from the first and third quartile) and asterisks are extreme values (more than 3.0 × IQR from the first and third quartile).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effect of timing of NGF (A) and the administration of IPDT (B) on days of hospitalisation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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