Recovery of oral feeding in Japanese elderly people after long-term tube feeding: A challenge in Miyama Hospital

Context: In Japan, many patients who cannot consume food orally are managed using external tube feeding over long periods. Although helpful in nutritional management, tube feeding significantly reduces a patient's quality of life. Aims: We examined the factors that affected the transition from tube to oral feeding in elderly people. Settings and Design: Single-center, retrospective, pilot study conducted from January 1, 2018 to December 28, 2019. Methods and Materials: We recruited patients who attempted to return to oral intake following tube feeding for >12 months at Miyama Hospital. Fourteen participants (male-to-female ratio = 6:8; age = 83.9 ± 2.6 years) attempted to resume oral feeding. We investigated patient diagnoses, duration of tube feeding, sex, swallowing reflex time, and Kohnan consciousness score. Patients with a swallowing reflex >4 s were administered banxia houpu tang. Results: Of the 14 patients, seven managed to resume oral feeding (group 1), while the remaining seven failed (group 2). The two groups of patients showed no significant difference in terms of mean age, duration of tube feeding, swallowing reflex time, and sex. However, the consciousness level of group 1 was significantly higher than that of group 2. Conclusions: Higher consciousness level in patients who successfully resumed oral feeding suggests that oral feeding should be considered in patients with adequate consciousness.