Impact of Early Enteral vs. Parenteral Nutrition on Risk of Gastric-Content Aspiration in Patients Requiring Mechanical Ventilation and Catecholamines

A common obstacle to enteral nutrition is gastrointestinal intolerance, with regurgitations potentially responsible for gastric-content aspiration. Several studies involving technetium 99m (99mTc) labeling of gastric contents have established that gastric-fluid microaspiration is common in critically ill patients receiving both endotracheal ventilation and enteral nutrition. However, to our knowledge, no studies have specifically addressed the role for enteral nutrition in the occurrence of microaspiration. The objective of this ancillary study is to compare the frequency of gastric-content microaspiration in patients given enteral versus parenteral nutrition during the NUTRIREA2 trial. The new knowledge of risk factors for microaspiration provided by this study may help to improve strategies for preventing microaspiration and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).