TY - JOUR
T1 - Tube feeding in patients with advanced dementia
T2 - A review of the evidence
AU - Finucane, Thomas E.
AU - Christmas, Colleen
AU - Travis, Kathy
PY - 1999/10/13
Y1 - 1999/10/13
N2 - Patients with advanced dementia frequently develop eating difficulties and weight loss. Enteral feeding tubes are often used in this situation, yet benefits and risks of this therapy are unclear. We searched MEDLINE, 1966 through March 1999, to identify data about whether tube feeding in patients with advanced dementia can prevent aspiration pneumonia, prolong survival, reduce the risk of pressure sores or infections, improve function, or provide palliation. We found no published randomized trials that compare tube feeding with oral feeding. We found no data to suggest that tube feeding improves any of these clinically important outcomes and some data to suggest that it does not. Further, risks are substantial. The widespread practice of tube feeding should be carefully reconsidered, and we believe that for severely demented patients the practice should be discouraged on clinical grounds.
AB - Patients with advanced dementia frequently develop eating difficulties and weight loss. Enteral feeding tubes are often used in this situation, yet benefits and risks of this therapy are unclear. We searched MEDLINE, 1966 through March 1999, to identify data about whether tube feeding in patients with advanced dementia can prevent aspiration pneumonia, prolong survival, reduce the risk of pressure sores or infections, improve function, or provide palliation. We found no published randomized trials that compare tube feeding with oral feeding. We found no data to suggest that tube feeding improves any of these clinically important outcomes and some data to suggest that it does not. Further, risks are substantial. The widespread practice of tube feeding should be carefully reconsidered, and we believe that for severely demented patients the practice should be discouraged on clinical grounds.
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U2 - 10.1001/jama.282.14.1365
DO - 10.1001/jama.282.14.1365
M3 - Review article
C2 - 10527184
AN - SCOPUS:0033552295
SN - 0098-7484
VL - 282
SP - 1365
EP - 1370
JO - JAMA
JF - JAMA
IS - 14
ER -