Making Choices:
Long Term Feeding Tube Placement in Elderly Patients
You have received a lot of information. So let's go over what we have presented so far about the advantages, disadvantages and other considerations of placement of a feeding tube.
It looks like there are two advantages of a feeding tube:
one, the patient may improve enough to be able to eat again and
two, the patient will definitely get nutrition.
What about the disadvantages? There are three:
first, there is the risk of complications from having the tube put in. These complications might include major or minor bleeding, infections, tube problems, or death from the procedure.
The second disadvantage is that the patient may become agitated with the tube
and the third is that the feeding tube may limit where the patient can receive care.
Finally, there are other considerations.
The research tells us that the feeding tube will not prevent aspiration in those who are likely to aspirate;
there are certain factors associated with decreased chances of survival in tube-fed patients
and the feeding tube may or may not improve quality of life.