#DrKKAnswers: Starting enteral nutrition with a low infusion rate improves tolerability, compared to initiation at the target rate. A randomized study of 200 mechanically ventilated patients showed that enteral feeding (at the target rate or at 10 mL/hr for six days before being incrementally increased to the target rate) showed no differences in mortality, ventilator-free days, or ICU-free days, but the group that began at the target rate had more episodes of elevated gastric residual volumes and a trend toward more diarrhea.
Source: Crit Care Med 2011; 39:967.
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