Abstract

Purpose
Diarrhea is generally recognized as one of the most common complications associated with tube feeding. As a result, various forms of fibers are added to the formula to reduce the incidence of tube-feeding-related diarrhea. The purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of liquid stool in enterally fed patients receiving an insoluble fiber-enriched formula and those fed a mixed fibers diet formula. Methods: We conducted a prospective, double-blind trial to determine the effects of administration of enteral nutrition containing insoluble fiber on the stool frequency. Eight patients were given soluble and insoluble group (SIF group), and 11 patients were given the insoluble fiber formula (IF group) for consecutively 7 days. A number of stool and fecal score were recorded for all 7 days by using the King's stool chart with an absolute daily fecal score of 15. Results: Calorie was started on the first day with 625± 170.6 (150∼1,400) kcal/day for SIF group and 827.3± 140.8 (300∼1,200) kcal/day for IF group. On the seventh day, these values were increased to 74.9±6.6 (44.4∼100)% for SIF group and 87.0±4.6 (66.7∼107.1)% for IF group of nutritional goal. SIF group reported a significantly higher tendency towards the mean number of stools per day (2.8±0.7 [0.7∼6.7]), mean fecal score per day (16.3±3.8 [4.6∼36.0]) and mean number of days with diarrhea per week (3.1±1.0 [0∼7]) than IF groups with corresponding values of (1.8±0.2 [0.6∼2.9], 10.3± 2.0 [2.6∼19.7] and 1.9±0.5 [0∼4]). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that enteral nutrition with insoluble fiber is beneficial in reducing the incidence of diarrhea in patients. Because gastrointestinal functional status (e.g., delayed gastric emptying) and intestinal environment (e.g., antibiotics) of patients with enteral tube feeding may be different from that of healthy humans, gastrointestinal symptoms (e.g., stool aspects) may vary depending on the fiber in enteral formula. (JKSPEN 2013;5(1):31-35)

• Keywords: Soluble fiber, Insoluble fiber, Enteral nutrition, Diarrhea