Ultrasound Meal Accommodation Test for Enteral Feeding in the Critically Ill
Condition: Enteral Feeding Intolerance
MeSH terms: Critical Illness
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Within the context of intensive care units (ICU), enteral nutrition (NE) is an essential tool
      in the management of critical patients. Gastrointestinal dysfunction causes significant
      difficulties in implementing enteral nutrition, and constitutes one of the main medical or
      non-avoidable causes to avoid enteral feeding in critically ill patients. Gastric ultrasound
      is a validated tool to non-invasively evaluate gastric volume and content. The purpose of
      this study is to evaluate the use of this test in critically ill patients for initiation and
      tolerance of the enteral feeding.
    

Detailed description: 
      Within the context of intensive care units (ICU), enteral nutrition is an essential tool in
      the management of critical patients, because it preserves the structure and function of the
      gastrointestinal mucosa, decreases the catabolic response to injury when it is administered
      early, and could also reduce the incidence of bacterial translocation. These factors could
      play an important role in reducing infectious complications, compared with parenteral
      nutrition. Current clinical practice guidelines, have agreed on the need to implement early
      enteral nutrition in the critically ill patient. Moreover, today it is considered one of the
      quality standards in the intensive care units. However, it is often not feasible to initiate
      early enteral nutrition , due to the high incidence of gastrointestinal complications that
      act as a limiting factor. Within the gastrointestinal complications seen in the critically
      ill patient, gastroparesis is usually the most frequent caused in general by the delay of
      gastric emptying in the absence of mechanical obstruction, and is manifested by a high volume
      of gastric residue. It is a frequent problem and difficult to manage in ICUs, with a reported
      incidence of up to 50-60% in critical patients in mechanical ventilation (MV). Gastroparesis
      causes significant difficulties in implementing enteral nutrition, and constitutes one of the
      main medical or non-avoidable causes of its suspension; it can also cause hydroelectrolytic
      and acid-base disorders if the volume of gastric residue is of great magnitude. In addition,
      gastroparesis may favor gastroesophageal reflux and bacterial overgrowth, with increased risk
      of pulmonary aspiration, pneumonia and sepsis. Several factors have been implicated in the
      deterioration of gastrointestinal motility in critical patients. The most important are
      mechanical ventilation, the use of opioids, catecholamines (mainly dopamine), the presence of
      brain injury, sepsis, hyperglycemia, supine position, among others. However, there are
      aspects not yet defined with respect to their diagnostic criteria and their management.

      Gastric ultrasound is a validated tool to non-invasively evaluate gastric volume and content
      and predict the risk of pulmonary aspiration. It has a high sensitivity and specificity that
      makes it a gold standard. Its implementation in the preoperative evaluation of emergency
      surgery has proven to be a cost-effective test, that allows reducing the morbidity and
      mortality of patients, establishing preventive measures and intubation techniques that limit
      or eliminate the risk of pulmonary aspiration, reducing the days of stay Hospital and
      mortality.

      Based on the knowledge generated by gastric ultrasonography, the concept of "risk stomach"
      was coined. Bouvet defines "stomach of risk" when the gastric volume exceeds 0.8 mL / kg of
      weight, measured by transverse ultrasound at the level of the gastric antrum.

      This model can predict volumes from 0 to 500 mL and is applicable to adult patients with a
      body mass index of less than 40 kg / m2. The sensitivity and specificity of this model is
      100%, which makes it the "gold standard" for non-invasive assessment of the stomach risk of
      lung gastric aspiration. The margin of error of the measurement is ± 6 mL.

      In patients with dyspepsia, the Gastric Accommodation Test guided by ultrasound has given
      good results as a diagnostic method for gastrointestinal disorders.

      In critically ill patients the clinical assessment of gastrointestinal function is not
      recognized, which leads to poor evolution with an increase in mobility and mortality.

      The current recommendations in critical patient nutrition are the initiation of enteral diet
      when it is possible, however, we do not have a monitoring method or biomarkers of
      gastrointestinal dysfunction, so intolerance can lead to life-threatening complications, and
      even more so now that the gastric residue has been identified as a risk factor for
      malnutrition (by removing the caloric content before absorption) and is also considered a
      risk factor for pneumonia associated with mechanical ventilation.

      The advantage of using ultrasound at the patient's bedside is that it reduces the risk of
      Broncho-aspiration and malnutrition with a non-invasive, radiation-free and cheap method.

      The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of this test in critically ill patients for
      initiation and tolerance of enteral diet.

      Objectives.

      1. To evaluate the ULTRASOUND GUIDED GASTRIC DYNAMICS TEST FOR TOLERANCE OF ENTERAL DIET IN
      CRITICAL PATIENTS Hypothesis The ULTRASOUND GUIDED GASTRY DYNAMICS TEST FOR ENTERAL DIET
      TOLERANCE IN CRITICAL PATIENTS (UMATI PROTOCOL) is useful for evaluating the initiation of
      enteral diet in critically ill patients with gastrointestinal dysfunction.

      Standardization of the ultrasound test All patients admitted to intensive therapy who present
      risk for gastrointestinal dysfunction grade I to III (tolerance to enteral diet should be
      assessed but not contraindicated) to observe their tolerance will be passed 500 ml of
      solution with glutamine, OR Caseinate and the protocol will be carried out. (Table 2)
      performing ultrasonographic measurements and observing changes in cross sectional area of the
      gastric antrum of the first measurement at the time after administration. Gastric residue
      will be measured. All risk factors for known gastrointestinal dysfunction and relevant data
      of the clinical history, age, gender, BMI, time of initiation of enteral nutrition will be
      recorded. The latter will be evaluated individually for each patient according to known risk
      factors (mainly absolute contraindications for the onset of enteral nutrition in critical
      patients.

      The gastric volume by ultrasound will be calculated according to the model of Pearls GV (ml)
      = 27.0 + 14.6 × right-lateral cross sectional area (cm2) -1.28 × age (yr)
    

Intervention name(s): Ultrasound meal acommodation test
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): to observe their tolerance a 500 ml of solution with glutamine, or Caseinate and the protocol will be carried out will be given. Ultrasound measures will be performed and observing changes in Cross Sectional Area of the gastric antrum of the first measurement at the time after administration. Gastric residue will be measured.
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention model description: The measurement will be carried out by experienced intensive care physicians who have completed a 4-hour training (12 patients). Patients will be placed with elevation of the head at 30 ° (except in patients with hip or spinal cord injury). For gastric scanning, a 2 to 5 Hz curved transducer for ultrasound will be used, in a parasagittal plane in the epigastric area. The right lobe of the liver and the abdominal aorta will be used as posterior and internal reference points. Once the visualization is achieved, it will rotate to achieve the transverse view of the gastric antrum.
Measurements will be made at 2, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 60 minutes for gastric tolerance and the difference between the initial and final measurement will be measured to see the tolerance of it. At the end of the test, a gastric residue measurement will be performed to compare results.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Other
Keywords: enteral feeding; gastric ultrasound