Fluoroscopic placement of nasojejunal feeding tubes in COVID‐19 patients in the prone position

Kolbeinsson, Hordur Mar; Veldkamp, James; Paauw, James D.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has caused an increase in patients requiring enteral feeding access while undergoing proning for severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We investigated the safety and feasibility of fluoroscopy‐guided nasojejunal (NJ) feeding tube placement in the prone position. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of all patients who underwent fluoroscopic placement of NJ feeding tubes at a single institution between March 2020 and December 2020. Primary end points were success rate and number of attempts. Chi‐squared and Fischer exact tests were used to compare prone and supine groups. RESULTS: A total of 210 patients were included in the study: 53 patients received NJ feeding tubes while prone and 157 while supine. All but one patient in the prone group had ARDS secondary to COVID‐19, whereas 47 (30.3%) had COVID‐19 in the supine group. The rate of successful placement was 94.3% in the prone group and 100% in the supine group. Mean number of attempts was 1.1 (SD, ±0.4) in the prone and 1.0 (SD, ±0.1) in the supine group (P = .14). Prone patients had a longer median fluoroscopy time (69 s, interquartile range [IQR] = 92; vs 48 s, IQR = 43; P < .001) and received a higher radiation dose during the procedure (47 mGy, IQR = 50; vs 25 mGy, IQR = 33; P = .004). No procedural complications were reported. CONCLUSION: Fluoroscopy‐guided NJ feeding tube placement in prone patients is feasible and safe. Patient positioning should not delay obtaining postpyloric feeding access.