ABSTRACT

Objective : This study aims to provide clinical occupational therapists with proper evidence of the appliablestandard of Intermittent Oroesophageal tube (IOE tube) feeding, and an increased recognition of the IOE tube. Methods : The subjects were 57 patients who were asked to apply IOE tube feeding. The characteristics of thesubjects were investigated by reading their medical records, and their cognitive function was evaluated usingKorean Version of Mini Mental State Examination (K-MMSE). The study divided the subjects into successful andfailed groups in IOE tube training and compared the characteristics of both groups. Results : IOE tube feeding was successfully applied to 45 of the 57 subjects (78.9%), but failed in 12 of them(21.1%). The causes of failure were poor cognitive functions (4 subjects), gag reflex (3 subjects), refusal oftraining method (3 subjects), and pneumonia (2 subjects). The successful group showed significantly higherscores compared to the failed group in K-MMSE. However, there were no significant differences in terms of theaverage age or training period variation. Conclusion : IOE tube feeding is appliable only if the patients and their care givers fully understand the treatmentmanner and agree with its implementation. In addition, IOE tube feeding can be considered not only a transitionalnutrition supply, but also a treatment method for patients who have the proper cognitive function without a severegag reflex. However, IOE tube feeding needs to be restricted to those patients who have pneumonia or a backwardflow. For safe and long-term application of IOE tube feeding, close management for patients and their care giversis required.