Enteral nutrition and immune modulation of acute pancreatitis.

Abstract

Enteral nutrition has been strongly recommended by major scientific societies for the nutritional management of patients with acute pancreatitis. Providing severe acute pancreatitis patients with enteral nutrition within the first 24-48 h of hospital admission can help improve outcomes compared to parenteral nutrition and no feeding. New research is focusing in on when and what to feed to best improve outcomes for acute pancreatitis patients. Early enteral nutrition have the potential to modulate the immune responses. Despite this consistent evidence of early enteral nutrition in patients with acute pancreatitis, clinical practice continues to vary due to individual clinician preference. Achieving the immune modulating effects of enteral nutrition heavily depend on proper placement of the feeding tube and managing any tube feeding associated complications. The current article reviews the immune modulating effects of enteral nutrition and pro- and prebiotics and suggests some practical tools that help improve the patient adherence and tolerance to the tube feeding. Proper selection of the type of the tube, close monitoring of the tube for its placement, patency and securing its proper placement and routine checking the gastric residual volume could all help improve the outcome. Using peptide-based and high medium chain triglycerides feeding formulas help improving feeding tolerance.