Removal of Nasogastric Feeding Tube Post Extubation in ICU : a Prospective Randomized Trial

Overview

Post-extubation dysphagia (PED) is a frequent but still underestimated condition in the intensive care units (ICU). In the international literature, the manifestations and consequences of PED lead to intra- and post-intensive care comorbidities. The exact etiology of PED is unknown, but considered multifactorial. Numerous causes, acquired during ICU, can lead to a delay in the reintroduction of intravenous nutrition, or even favor the development of inhalation pneumopathy. One of these causes is the presence of the nasogastric tube. The incidence of ECD varies from 3 to 62%. Its presence impacts morbidity and mortality. Preventive strategies for PED have only been studied with questionable methodologies. The goal of ICU therapists is to detect PED as early as possible in order to implement curative strategies such as adapted nutrition and early swallowing rehabilitation.

There are several tools available to diagnose PED. These assessment methods are numerous and not subject to consensus. There are expensive instrumental methods requiring experts, which allow for accurate diagnosis but cannot be routinely used at the ICU patient's bed. For the ICU patient, bed-side clinical assessments seem more appropriate. The "Yale swallow protocol" (YSP), is the most used test in the literature. Its sensitivity in predicting PED at 96.5%, a negative predictive value of 97.9% and a false negative rate of less than 2%, seem to make it the most suitable. Currently, no recommendations have been made by French or international ICU societies on the appropriate time or method for PED assessment. Regarding the treatment of PED, the literature shows that physiotherapy management would not significantly reduce its incidence, nor accelerate the resumption of per os feeding. No study has examined the impact of nasogastric tube removal combined with the use of a standardized swallow test on post-extubation ECD. For all these reasons, we plan to evaluate the interventional strategy consisting in removing the nasogastric feeding tube as soon as extubation, to carry out between 1 hour and 6 hours post extubation the "Yale swallow protocol", to allow a resumption of feeding as soon as possible while screening the dysphagic patients. The research hypothesis is therefore: "Systematic removal of the nasogastric tube during the extubation procedure associated with an early swallow test in the ICU allows an early per-os nutritional resumption in comparison with the classical strategy of nasogastric tube management and swallowing disorders assessment"