After oral surgery, enteral nutrition of a polymeric diet (Clinimeal®) is often delivered via a nasal feeding tube (6Fr. DUO-TUBE®) to promote rapid healing. However, we are concerned about the degree of feeding tube contamination by microbes, because diarrhea is the most frequent side effect. Therefore, we examined the microbiological flora in the feeding tube just after removal of the latter.
Our subjects were 44 patients who had received oral/maxillofacial surgery without general complications. Their average age was 34.7 years. The average feeding tube retention period was 11.0 days, and the average quantity of Clinimeal consumed each day was 1468 kcal (1kcal/ml). The most frequent complication was diarrhea, which occurred in 23 case (52.3%) during the tube-feeding period.
The following results were obtained regarding the cases of diarrhea:
1) The feeding tube retention period was directly proportional to the diarrhea rate.
2) The types of diarrhea-causing bacteria found in the feeding tube were as follows: C.freundii in 2 cases, E.coli in 2 cases, Klebsiella in 8 cases, and Pseudomonas was found as replaced bacteria in 10 cases.
