Monitoring enteral feeding tolerance in a critically ill patient using point-of-care ultrasound.
Roberta Pereira Spala Neves, Allan Peixoto de Assis, Cesar Matias de Carvalho Russo
PMID 41370602WHAT IT FOUND
In one ICU patient, nurses used bedside ultrasound to estimate stomach volume, held feed advancement, gave a stomach-emptying medicine, and moved the tube past the stomach; he reached target calories within three days.
This is one patient, not evidence.
Key findings
01Nurses began bedside ultrasound monitoring on ICU day 25, estimated gastric volume at 202 mL, and chose not to advance feeding while starting a prokinetic.
02The care sequence included holding feed advancement, starting a prokinetic, and placing a post-pyloric tube; after these steps, ultrasound showed an empty stomach and total energy requirement was reached within three days.
03The authors state the report is a single case with limited generalizability.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a single-case experience report, so it describes one patient's course and cannot show that POCUS works in other ICU patients. The gastric volume and emptying-time estimates relied on ultrasound measurements and formulas, and the proposed ratio for emptying time still requires validation. The feeding decisions included holding feed advancement, starting a prokinetic, and placing a post-pyloric tube, so the contribution of any one component cannot be separated. No comparison group, blinding, or predefined outcome was reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that bedside gastric ultrasound improves enteral feeding tolerance or reduces aspiration risk in ICU patients. This is one patient, and the feeding decisions also included holding feed advancement, a prokinetic, and post-pyloric tube placement, so the contribution of any one component cannot be separated.