Nocturnal nasogastric tube feeding at home.

Five malnourished patients who consistently failed to maintain or gain weight with other oral diets have been taught to give themselves a nocturnal nasogastric tube feed at home to supplement their dietary intake by day. All patients gained weight at a rate of about 0.5 kg per week. Nasogastric tube feeding at home can be an acceptable, safe, economical and efficient treatment for nutritional depletion, particularly in patients with a short functional length of small intestine for whom simpler dietary manipulation has been unsuccessful.