The increase in awareness of the importance of adequate nutritional intake has increased the use of enteral feeding tubes for both short and long term feeding in both primary and secondary care. An enteral feeding tube provides a means of maintaining nutritional intake when there is limited access to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Finding a suitable drug formulation for administration to a patient with limited GI access can be difficult. Although parenteral administration can be used and often guarantees 100 per cent absorption, repeated intravenous, subcutaneous or intramuscular injections are associated with complications and are not suitable for long-term use. There are also other routes that can be considered such as transdermal, buccal, rectal or topical but the drugs available in these preparations are limited. In these patients the feeding tube is often the only means of enteral access and increasingly is being used as a route for drug administration. However, their use for the administration of drugs may induce formula intolerance, or result in less than optimal drug absorption. This handbook is designed to provide all the necessary guidance on the safe administration of medicines via this route in one resource.

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