Slow infusion of solution of nutrients into the veins through a catheter. This may be partial, to supplement food and nutrient intake, or total (TPN, total parenteral nutrition), providing the sole source of energy and nutrients for patients with major intestinal problems.
The process of feeding someone by means other than the digestive tract, especially by giving injections of glucose to someone critically ill.
Nutritional support furnished through the vascular system.
Nutrients and medications introduced to a patient’s body by various forms of injection, bypassing the digestive system. Parenteral nutrition is often administered to premature newborns in neonatal intensive care units and to patients generally after surgery or in other special situations, as in cases of shock, coma, malnutrition, or failure of the kidneys or liver. Often among the nutrients contained in parenteral fluids are saline (salt) solution, glucose, amino acids, vitamins, and electrolytes, the aim being not to supply full nutrition but to stabilize the electrolyte balance in the patient’s system.
Administration of nutrients by a route other than the digestive system, for example, by intravenous administration of fluids.
The administration of a nutritional solution through a catheter into the blood stream. Total parenteral nutrition (TPN), also called hyperalimentation, is used in prolonged coma, severe malabsorption, burns, and other conditions in which feeding by mouth is not possible or does not provide adequate nutrition. Problems that may require parenteral nutrition in children include intestinal obstruction, structural abnormalities of the digestive tract, and severe chronic diarrhea.
In severely ill patients especially those who have had major surgery or those with sepsis, burns, acute pancreatitis and renal failure the body’s reserves of protein become exhausted. This results in weight loss; reduction in muscle mass; a fall in the serum albumin and lymphocyte count; and an impairment of cellular immunity. Severely ill patients are unable to take adequate food by mouth to repair the body protein loss so that enteral or parenteral nutrition is required. Enteral feeding is through the gastrointestinal tract with the aid of a naso-gastric tube; parenteral nutrition involves the provision of carbohydrate, fat and proteins by intravenous administration.
The provision of nutrition through intravenous means effectively circumvents the patient’s entire digestive system.