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Background: Enteral feeding is preferred for maintaining gut integrity and providing nutrition in trauma patients. Recent reports suggest that use of early enteral feeds is successful and that complications are rare. A recent burn patient, who suffered apparent bowel obstruction and perforation secondary to enteral feedings, led us to review our experience with mechanical complications of tube feedings., Methods: We searched our registry of patients treated for acute burn trauma injury and identified patients treated for acute bowel obstruction in the past 3 years., Results: Four patients were identified, ages 22 to 44, with burns of 6 to 92% total body surface area. Each required intubation and ventilatory support during initial treatment, complicated by adult respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis. We began enteral feeds 1 to 3 days after admission. At approximately 14 days after admission, each patient deteriorated clinically, which led to emergent abdominal exploration; the tube feedings caused bowel obstruction and associated complications. Each patient improved with laparotomy., Conclusion: Bowel obstruction, ischemic necrosis, or both, secondary to early and aggressive nutrition with a fiber supplemented enteral feeding is an uncommon, life-threatening complication. Understanding and early recognition of this potential complication are essential to prevention or successful treatment.

We evaluated the effect of age on eicosanoid production in guinea pig blood. Heparinized blood from 7-10-day, 6-week, or 6-month-old guinea pigs was incubated with 150 microM arachidonic acid (AA) for 5 min, followed by stimulation with A23187 (20 micrograms/mL) for an additional 10 min at 37 degrees. The reaction was terminated by centrifugation, and the production of plasma leukotriene (LT) B4 and C4, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and thromboxane B2 (TXB2) was determined by enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA). LTC4, PGE2, and TXB2 formation were unaffected by age. In marked contrast, production of LTB4 was increased 4- to 5-fold as age increased from 7-10 days (9.51 +/- 2.07 ng/mL) or 6 weeks (8.83 +/- 1.81 ng/mL) to 6 months (40.57 +/- 9.66 ng/mL). To determine the effect of age on the total eicosanoid product profile, blood was stimulated in the presence of [14C]AA, and plasma metabolites were separated by reverse-phase high pressure liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and quantitated using on-line radiochemical detection. In addition to increased LTB4 production, a modest increase in 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12-HETE) production was also observed in the 6-month-old animals. Previous studies have demonstrated interference of 12-HETE in the immunoassay of LTB4. Therefore, to validate the authenticity of the plasma leukotriene ELISA measurements, samples were precipitated with methanol and fractionated by RP-HPLC. The fractions co-eluting with [3H]LTB4 or [3H]LTC4 were dried under vacuum and reconstituted in ELISA buffer, and leukotrienes were quantitated. As seen previously, following HPLC purification LTB4 production remained significantly elevated in the 6-month-old guinea pigs, whereas LTC4 production was unaffected by age. To further document the selectivity of this effect on LTB4 production, we evaluated the effect of increasing age on cyclooxygenase or phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activity. Neither cyclooxygenase nor PLA2 activity was elevated as animals matured. In conclusion, the capacity of whole blood to produce LTB4, but not LTC4, TXB2, or PGE2, was elevated markedly in older animals.