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Medically assisted nutrition for palliative care in adult patientsGood P, Cavenagh J, Mather M, Ravenscroft P
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SummaryMedically assisted nutrition to assist palliative care patientsIt is common for palliative care patients to have reduced oral intake during their illness. Management of this condition includes discussion with the patient, family and staff involved and may include giving nutrition with medical assistance. This can be done either via a plastic tube inserted into a vein directly or into the stomach or other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. It is unknown whether this treatment helps people to feel better or live longer. A search of the international literature was only able to find a small number of studies looking at this issue. As a result, it is not possible to clearly define the benefits and harms of this treatment.
This is a Cochrane review abstract and plain language summary, prepared and maintained by The Cochrane Collaboration, currently published in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010 Issue 1, Copyright © 2010 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.. The full text of the review is available in The Cochrane Library (ISSN 1464-780X).
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October 08. 2008 AbstractBackgroundMany palliative care patients have a reduced oral intake during their illness. The management of this can include the provision of medically assisted nutrition with the aim of prolonging the length of life of a patient, improving their quality of life, or both. ObjectivesTo determine the effect of medically assisted nutrition on the quality and length of life of palliative care patients. Search strategyStudies were identified from searching The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (1966 to 2008), EMBASE (1980 to 2008), CINAHL, CANCERLIT, Caresearch, Dissertation abstracts, SCIENCE CITATION INDEX and the reference lists of all eligible trials, key textbooks, and previous systematic reviews. The date of the latest search was July 2008. Selection criteriaAll relevant randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or prospective controlled trials (if no RCTs were found). Data collection and analysisThere were no RCTs or prospectively controlled trials found that met the inclusion criteria. Main resultsThere were four prospective non-controlled trials (including one qualitative study) that studied medically assisted nutrition in palliative care participants, and one Cochrane systematic review (on Motor Neurone disease), but no RCTs or prospective controlled studies. Authors' conclusionsThere are insufficient good quality trials to make any recommendations for practice with regards to the use of medically assisted nutrition in palliative care patients. |