Indications for pump-assisted enteral feeding.

Of 80 patients fed enterally over nine months, 10 had serious gastrointestinal complications from gravity-controlled continuous enteral feeding. Use of an infusion pump controlled diarrhoea in patients with gastrointestinal disorders, but was less successful in patients with poor gastric emptying or impaired swallowing reflexes. Thus a pump is not indicated for routine use but, in carefully selected patients, it can obviate the necessity for parenteral nutrition.