Investigation of the Frequency of Fever and Inflammation Responses in Patients Receiving Oral Feeding or Enteral Feeding in a Recuperation Hospital

Abstract

Aspiration pneumonia in elderly patients has become a serious problem in recuperation hospitals. Typical symptoms of aspiration pneumonia are fever or inflammation responses. If patients receiving oral feeding develop fever or increased inflammation responses, oral feeding is often restricted. However, restriction of oral feeding has not been confirmed to prevent fever or inflammation responses. Therefore, the present study retrospectively examined the frequency of fever and inflammation responses in patients receiving oral feeding compared with those receiving enteral feeding in a recuperation hospital.　Eighty-one patients admitted to a recuperation hospital participated as subjects. Twenty-three subjects were assigned to the oral nutrition (ON) group and 58 to the enteral nutrition (EN) group by method of receiving feeding. Physiological (body temperature and number of fever episodes) and biochemical (WBC and CRP) data were measured in each group.　The body temperature, number of fever episodes, WBC, and CRP in the EN group were significantly (p＜0.05) higher than those in the ON group. Therefore, long-term enteral feeding is not effective for improving fever and inflammation responses.