Medically assisted nutrition to assist palliative care patients

Good P, Cavenagh J, Mather M, Ravenscroft P

Published Online:

June 15, 2011

It is common for palliative care patients to have reduced oral intake during their illness. Management of this condition includes discussion with the patient, family and staff involved and may include giving nutrition with medical assistance. This can be done either via a plastic tube inserted into a vein directly or into the stomach or other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. It is unknown whether this treatment helps people to feel better or live longer. A search of the international literature was only able to find a small number of studies looking at this issue. As a result, it is not possible to clearly define the benefits and harms of this treatment.

Abstract (click to read)

Background:

Many palliative care patients have a reduced oral intake during their illness. The management of this can include the provision of medically assisted nutrition with the aim of prolonging the length of life of a patient, improving their quality of life, or both.

Objectives:

To determine the effect of medically assisted nutrition on the quality and length of life of palliative care patients.

Search strategy:

Studies were identified from searching The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (1966 to 2008), EMBASE (1980 to 2008), CINAHL, CANCERLIT, Caresearch, Dissertation abstracts, SCIENCE CITATION INDEX and the reference lists of all eligible trials, key textbooks, and previous systematic reviews. The date of the latest search was July 2008.

Selection criteria:

All relevant randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or prospective controlled trials (if no RCTs were found).

Data collection and analysis:

There were no RCTs or prospectively controlled trials found that met the inclusion criteria.

Main results:

There were four prospective non-controlled trials (including one qualitative study) that studied medically assisted nutrition in palliative care participants, and one Cochrane systematic review (on Motor Neurone disease), but no RCTs or prospective controlled studies.

Authors' conclusions:

There are insufficient good quality trials to make any recommendations for practice with regards to the use of medically assisted nutrition in palliative care patients.

This record should be cited as:

Good P, Cavenagh J, Mather M, Ravenscroft P. Medically assisted nutrition for palliative care in adult patients. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD006274. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006274.pub2

Assessed as up to date:

July 18, 2008

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Primary Review Group:

Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Group

Health topics:

Cancer > Palliative and supportive care > Hydration and nutrition

Cochrane Summaries^beta

Independent high-quality evidence for health care decision making

Medically assisted nutrition to assist palliative care patients

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