Can continuous pump feeding reduce the incidence of pneumonia in nasogastric tube-fed patients? A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Continuous pump feeding is often used to reduce aspiration risk in older patients on tube feeding, but its effectiveness in preventing aspiration pneumonia is unproven. A randomized controlled trial was therefore performed to examine the effectiveness of continuous pump feeding in decreasing the incidence of pneumonia in tube-fed older hospital patients.

METHODS

One hundred and seventy eight elderly patients from three convalescence hospitals and one infirmary, on nasogastric tube feeding, were randomly assigned to have intermittent bolus (bolus) or continuous pump (pump) feeding for 4weeks. The primary outcome was the incidence of pneumonia. The secondary outcome was mortality.

RESULTS

Eighty five subjects were randomized into the pump group and 93 in the bolus group. The groups were comparable in age, nutritional and functional status, co-morbidities and history of pneumonia, except that there were more women in the pump group. Within 4weeks, 15 subjects (17.6%) in the pump group and 18 (19.4%) in the bolus group developed pneumonia. Seven subjects (8.2%) in pump group and 13 subjects (14.0%) in bolus group died. There was no significant difference in either pneumonia or death rates between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Continuous pump feeding did not significantly affect the rates of pneumonia or mortality in tube-fed older hospital patients when compared with intermittent bolus feeding.