Preparing and administering medications via enteral feeding tubes: a guideline for clinical pharmacists and multi-professional team

Abstract

Objective: To identify the most prescribed drugs by enteral feeding tube in a public hospital and to a guideline for safe medication preparation and administration via enteral feeding tubes. Methods: A cross-sectional study with analysis of the daily prescriptions of patients exclusively using an enteral catheter in intensive care units and inpatients of the medical clinic specialty, in which descriptive statistics were used to identify the prevalence of medication use by tube. In a second step, a protocol was developed for the situation in which oral medications are prescribed to patients with a tube in the digestive tract. Results: A total of 1.810 medications prescribed by enteral feeding tube, of these 1.810, 291 (16%) were prescribed in liquid pharmaceutical form (suspension, solution, syrup) e 1.519 (84%) were prescribed in solid pharmaceutical form (tablets, capsule). 52 medications were selected for the protocol, and 14 of them (26.9%) with the recommendation of not crushing and administering via enteral feeding tube. Conclusion: Our results highlights the performance of clinical pharmacist in monitoring patients with enteral feeding tubes and guidance of multi-professional team. The protocol elaboration will guide for preparation and administration medication through the enteral feeding tube, reducing possible adverse events and ensuring the safety and efficacy of drug therapy.