[The relation between the viscosity of enteral nutrition products and delays or interruptions in the infusion rate selected].

Enteral nutrition infusion systems block or suffer alterations to the infusion rate selected at the pump, creating significant problems in the clinic. The manufacturers insist on the important of not using fine-bore catheters when products are viscous, but they provide no specific data correlating bore with maximum advisable viscosity. Experimental work was carried out in order to relate these variable and fix a pattern for selection of nutrients according to their physical properties and a particular catheter bore. The results of our study indicate that none of the products currently of the market for enteral nutrition creates problems with the selected infusion rate, nor blocking of a probe of minimum bore (6 CH). Thus the complications attributed to catheter bore or the physical characteristics of a product are attributable to the poor preparation of the product or improper handling or care of catheters and infusion systems.