The Effect of Intermittent Oro-esophageal Tube Feeding on Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Patients With Tracheostomy

The safe and effective nutrition support for severe traumatic brain injury patients with tracheostomy continues to be a challenge. Nasogastric tube feeding has been the mainstream choice in China but with the risk of complications. Intermittent Oro-esophageal Tube Feeding is an established modality of enteral nutrition support that can be used with routine treatment. This study reports the clinical outcomes of Intermittent Oro-esophageal Tube Feeding vs. nasogastric tube feeding, in patients receiving routine treatment. This was a multicenter randomized controlled study of 98 severe traumatic brain injury patients with tracheostomy. Patients enrolled were divided randomly into the observation group with Intermittent Oro-esophageal Tube Feeding (n=50) or the control group with Nasogastric tube feeding (n=48) for enteral nutrition support, respectively. Nutritional status, complications, decannulation of tracheostomy tubes and level of consciousness on day 1 and day 28 were recorded and compared.