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Preventing nasogastric tube injury: Is there a better way?
Author(s) -
Ostedgaard Katharine L.,
Schleiffarth J. Robert,
Hoffman Henry T.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the laryngoscope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1531-4995
pISSN - 0023-852X
DOI - 10.1002/lary.23990
Subject(s) - medicine , pneumothorax , intubation , pneumonia , accidental , surgery , physics , acoustics
BACKGROUND More than 1.2 million nasogastric feeding tubes (NGT) are placed annually in the United States. Rates of misplacement into the respiratory tree are reported between 1% and 3%, with resultant harm in up to 40% of these cases. Risk factors for misplaced NGT include the presence of a tracheotomy or anatomic abnormality, an absent gag reflex, and concurrent use of sedative or pain medications. Given the high rates of injury from this common procedure and the available array of contemporary modalities to guide NGT placement, we aim to identify the most sensitive and sustainable means of preventing iatrogenic injury by reevaluating the widely accepted practice of confirmatory abdominal radiography after blind (without imaging guidance) NGT insertion.