Guidelines for evaluating and categorizing enteral feeding formulas according to therapeutic equivalence.

Because of the current rapid proliferation of commercially prepared formulas for use in supporting the nutritional status of patients, choosing among them is becoming progressively more difficult. There has been no unified discussion in the literature to date to help the clinician distinguish the important parameters of enteral feeding formula composition from the unimportant ones. Herein we stratify these parameters into three categories of relative importance, and classify the currently available formulas into categories of therapeutic equivalence. Together, the stratified parameters and the classification scheme may be used to evaluate new products in the future and establish a hospital enteral feeding formulary, which can simplify the clinician's choice of formulas and decrease patient costs.