Influence of age and type of underlying disease on complications related to home enteral nutrition: a single Italian center experience.

Background: No data about the influence of age and underlying diseases on home enteral nutrition (HEN)–related complications are reported in the literature. Herein, we retrospectively investigated this issue by analyzing HEN-related complications in a cohort of consecutive patients grouped according to the underlying disease and age. Material and Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 101 patients referring to our team in 2007-2010 to obtain patients’ demographic data, age, nutrition status, duration of HEN treatment, and type of HEN-related complications. They were divided in cancer and neurologic patients and subgrouped on the basis of their age. HEN-related complications were expressed as complication rates. Results: Patients with neurological diseases suffered a significantly higher number of complications as compared with cancer patients (P = .04). Age did not significantly influence complication rates. The mechanical complications were the most frequent. The majority of HEN-related complication...