Introduction

Most patients hospitalized in intensive care units (ICUs) are fed through a feeding tube. Intolerance is one of the most common complications of tube feeding, and it is observed in more than half of these patients. Each of the tube feeding methods has some advantages and disadvantages, which require more extensive research in order to confirm the proper method for nutrition. This study was conducted to compare nasogastric feeding at different intervals on the feeding tolerance of ICU patients.

Material and methods

Sixty-three patients hospitalized in the ICU of Besat Hospital in Hamadan, Iran who were undergoing tube feeding by the bolus method participated in this single-blind, randomized, clinical trial. The patients were randomly divided into three groups of 21 people each and were administered bolus feeding in intervals of 2, 3, and 4 hours. The feeding intolerance (regurgitation, diarrhea, and high gastric residual volume) were assessed and compared with each other according to a checklist for three consecutive days.

Results

Regurgitation accrued in 66.7% (n = 14), 38.1% (n = 8), and 23.8% (n = 5) of patients fed every 2, 3, and 4 hours, respectively; these differences were statistically significant (p = 0.017). The gastric residual volume was 61.9% (n = 13), 38.1% (n = 8), and 23.8% (n = 5) in the three groups, which was also a statistically significant difference (p = 0.04), but in the case of diarrhea, no significant difference was observed among the three groups (p = 0.14).

Conclusions

The interval of every 4 hours demonstrated a low risk of gastrointestinal complications, so it is suggested for use with patients in the ICU as the safest mode from the different intervals tested.