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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Neonatology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1499482
Home Nasogastric Tube Program for NICU Infants: A Seven Year Retrospective Outcome Analysis
Provisionally accepted
Alexa Weninger 1 Mikayla Sabella 1
Abe Eric Sahmoun 1
Mohamed W Mohamed 1,2 Brennan Forward 1,2
Carrie M Brower-Breitwieser 1,2*- 1 School of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States
- 2 Sanford Children’s Fargo, Fargo, SD, United States
The goal of this study was to assess the safety and effectiveness of a Home Nasogastric Program for infants admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).We performed a retrospective chart review of infants discharged from a Level III NICU to a Home Nasogastric (HNG) follow-up clinic from December 2014-February 2022. Data was recorded for two years post discharge from the NICU.Results: 83 infants were included in this study. There were no emergency department visits related to feeding tube dysfunction or nasogastric (NG) tube equipment malfunctions. The number of days the NG tube was used median (IQR): 3 (2-10). Seventy-seven (93%) infants had no documented feeding problems at the end of the follow-up period. We estimate 556 hospitalization days avoided resulting in cost savings.The Home NG program was safe and effective. This program decreased length of NICU stay and health care associated costs.
Keywords: Nasogastric tube, neonatal intensive care, Home enteral feeding, gastrostomy tube, Neonatal feeding
Received: 20 Sep 2024; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Weninger, Sabella, Sahmoun, Mohamed, Forward and Brower-Breitwieser. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Carrie M Brower-Breitwieser, Sanford Children’s Fargo, Fargo, SD, United States
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