The Effect of Body Position on Gavage Residual Volume of Gastric in Intensive Care Units Patients

Malnutrition is experienced by most of the intensive care unit patients, which causes poor prognosis and worsens the disease. Gastric residual volume represents the status of food tolerate. Regarding some controversies and lack of information on the effect of body position on this issue, the current study was conducted to determine the effect of body position on gavage residual volume of gastric in patients of intensive care units.
In a clinical trial study in 2014, 90 intensive care patients with enteral feeding were recruited to the study from educational hospital of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. The patients were allocated to three groups randomly. The gavage was done for each group in three positions, i.e. back, right, and left. Subsequently, gastric residual contents were measured before, two, and three hours after the three positions. The data were recorded in a researcher-provided checklist. They were analyzed by SPSS-18 software, using descriptive and inferential statistics.
In this study, the lowest rate of GRC among the three groups was related to right side position, which was measured at 18.3 cc and 2.06 cc in 2 and 3 hours after gavage, respectively; and there was a significant difference between the right side GRC in comparison with the left and back positions (P In this study, the best position after gavage was right. Hence, it is suggested this topic after gavage will be considered for reducing malnutrition and rising the food tolerance.