Current Status of Peripheral Alimentation

Excerpt

For hospital patients unable to eat or absorb adequate amounts of nutrients, three routes of nutritional support are available: nasogastric (1), peripheral intravenous, or central intravenous (2). Peripheral intravenous nutrition is the focus of this note.

To maintain current nutritional state or to replete undernutrition, the therapist must provide all 36 essential nutrients, because inadequate intake of even one will eventually cause a clinical deficiency syndrome (3). The nutritional components in 2 L/d of solution needed for maintenance of a healthy, 70-kg adult include 2000 kcal (glucose, 985 kcal; amino acids, 240 kcal; and triglycerides, 765 kcal), 2400 mosmol (including