An update on enteral feeding in the community

Enteral feeding is now commonplace in the community and as such, healthcare practitioners working in the community should be aware of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) 2017 guideline. Entitled ‘Nutrition support for adults: oral nutrition support, enteral tube feeding and parenteral nutrition’, this guideline stipulates how one can prepare and give feeds, and use the equipment involved, so as to prevent infection or unwanted problems that may lead to hospital admission. The guideline also emphasises the importance of training in the care of enteral feeding tubes (NICE, 2017).

This article provides updated advice for using percutaneous endoscopic gastronomy (PEG), the choice on enteral tube feed, the need for communication between patients and their multidisciplinary team, and signs of complications to look out for (Palmer, 2021).

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tubes are suitable for adults and children. They are a long-term, artificial enteral feeding tube that require endoscopic placement, allowing direct access to the stomach from outside the abdominal wall, whereby supplementation of nutrition, fluids, and medication can then be administered via this route (Haywood, 2012).