Feeding tubes and pancreatitis

RE: Feeding tubes and pancreatitis

Steph Worsley — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 18:07:16 GMT

I've never (10 years as internal medicine nurse) been told to cap a pancreatitis patient at 50% feeding, usual staged gradual increase as you said, obviously utilising a low fat diet (either blended or using the RC low fat GI liquid diet)

Even complete withdrawal of food is now not best practice, getting relevant food into the patient ASAP is more important as long as the patient is being treated for any vomiting/nausea

RE: Feeding tubes and pancreatitis

Rachel Woodcock — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 13:22:39 GMT

Hi Victoria

Thanks for your reply. I've done a nutrition certificate last year and it never mentioned the 50% rer feeding so was wondering if it's a new thing or even if it's something that's been proven to be better than feeding the full amount of day 3 which I've always been taught to do. I shall do further research into this to see which option is most recommended.

Thanks

RE: Feeding tubes and pancreatitis

V E S — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 12:53:19 GMT

Generally it would be day 1 1/3 RER, day 2 2/3 RER, day 3 onwards full RER, but is down to your clinician.

With pancreatitis, the aim of providing nutrition is not exacerbate the pancreatitis and reduce clinical signs. Often, it is suggested that oral feeding is withheld initially but should be reintroduced gradually. This is because ingestion of food stimulates the pancreas to produce enzymes to help digestion, particularly digestion of fat (hence why pancreatic diets are low in fat). So, I would assume, just feeding 50% RER would be to reduce stimulation of the pancreas.

Though, I would try more holistic nursing, and consider the whole patient. How long has it been anorexic e.g. chronic or acute pancreatitis? Does it have other disease processes? How clinically unwell is the patient? Feeding under the recommended RER may not be beneficial, as nutrition is very important for recovery.

Hope this helps, I've worked as a medicine RVN a lot and this is just what I tend to think about when nursing them. Maybe try VNJ/The Veterinary Nurse Journal to see if they have good articles x