Reviewer: Melissa M. Potts, BS, PharmD (Temple University School of Pharmacy)
Description: This handbook provides guidelines on the administration of drugs via enteral feeding tubes, an area in which there is limited readily available information. This update to the 2011 edition includes over 400 updated drug monographs and 29 drug additions.
Purpose: The monographs are intended to support healthcare practitioners in making decisions on the safe and effective administration of medications through enteral feeding tubes. Oftentimes, the drug product labeling lacks guidance on administration via the enteral route, and this handbook has been produced by experts on behalf of the British Pharmaceutical Nutrition Group.
Audience: The book is intended to help healthcare professionals make decisions regarding which medications are safe to administer via enteral feeding tubes, which tubes are appropriate to administer the drugs, and how to do so. It is written for any healthcare practitioner who is involved in administering drug to patients with limited GI access, such as nurses, nursing students, physicians, dietitians in hospitals, and pharmacists. The authors are experts in the field of enteral nutrition and have served on committees in this field, such as the British Pharmaceutical Nutrition Group and the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.
Features: A few introductory chapters on enteral feeding tubes and the administration of drugs through this route familiarize readers with the practical, legal, and medical issues surrounding enteral nutrition. The drug monographs are organized in a way that allows quick access to information and it is very easy to determine if the medication is safe to be administered through the enteral route. Information is current and properly referenced. A table is included for each drug monograph which contains various drug formulations with the manufacturer and available dose and form. The table advises whether this specific formulation may be crushed, under what circumstances, or if no information is available. Each monograph also provides practical information, such as how to change to available formulations that may be crushed, and how to specifically administer the medication through different enteral tubes (i.e., intragastric, intrajejunal, etc.). Because this is a U.K. publication, the drugs and much of the information are also specific to the U.K. Caution should be used in extrapolating this information for practice in other countries.
Assessment: This is a very useful reference on the administration of medication through enteral feeding tubes. Although commonly done in clinical practice, there is limited published information on this route of administration in product labeling. This is a convenient and useful guide to have on the medical floor as a point of care reference for nurses, pharmacists, or any healthcare providers administering drugs via the enteral route or providing drug information.
