Abstract

Enteral nutrition (EN) has been used since the Egyptians, and first began with rectal feeding. EN has several physiological advantages such as reduced complications due to immunological improvements, the prevention of bacterial translocation due to the ability to maintain the integrity of the intestinal barrier, and more convenience but less expense. Yet, there is much difficulty implementing EN because of medical insurance. A Levin tube is most often selected as the route for enteral feedings and patients must bear the high cost of radiologic and endoscopic procedures for enteral feeding. Among the efforts to overcome these difficulties, we review tips for feeding tube placement as well as tube selection and routes. (SMN 2011;2:1-4)

• Keywords: Enteral nutrition (EN), Tubes, Routes