Home Parenteral Nutrition

Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) or Intravenous Hyperalimentation (IVH) has been used in hospital patients for 15 years. It became increasingly apparent to institutions that used hyperalimentation, that there was a group of patients who required intravenous feeding at home if they were ever to leave hospital. The concept of an artificial gut system for patients became the basis for hyperalimentation at home. In the early 1970s, Joyeaux and Solassol in France, Scribner in the United States, and Jeejeebhoy in Canada pioneered the use of intravenous feeding at home for the patient with GI tract failure. Since that time, Home Parenteral Nutrition (HPN) has been used with increasing frequency in many large medical centres throughout the world.