Oro-esophageal feeding for tracheostomized patients with severe traumatic brain injury: a randomized…

Randomized trialAnnals of medicine· Dec 2026

Oro-esophageal feeding for tracheostomized patients with severe traumatic brain injury: a randomized controlled trial.

Dandan Lv, Hongyan Liu, Jing Zhao … Yu Ding

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Brain Injury MedicineRandomized trialTreatmentQ1IF 5.0

Oro-esophageal tube feeding speeds decannulation vs nasogastric feeding after severe brain injury

Oro-esophageal feeding for tracheostomized patients with severe traumatic brain injury: a randomized controlled trial.

Dandan Lv … Yu Ding

Annals of medicine · Dec 2026 · Q1 in General Medicine

Background

This study reports the clinical effects of intermittent oro-esophageal tube feeding (IOE) versus nasogastric tube feeding (NGT) on nutritional status, aspiration pneumonia, decannulation, and level of consciousness in tracheostomized patients with severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI).

Methods

Were randomized 1:1 to the intervention and control groups for 28-day interventions.

n = 104 participants

Results

IOE feeding raises decannulation rate over five-fold versus nasogastric feeding

OR 0.30 (95% CI 0.13 to 0.69)

null 1

0.13

0.69

CI excludes the null - significant

More results

After intervention, significant interaction effects were observed in hemoglobin ( β = 5.272, 95% CI: 2.707, 7.837), albumin (β = 3.675, 95% CI: 1.854, 5.496), prealbumin (β = 11.835, 95% CI: 6.623, 17.047), body mass index ( β = 1.719, 95% CI: 0.868, 2.569), the Glasgow Coma Scale ( β = 0.981, 95% CI: 0.572, 1.390), and aspiration pneumonia (OR= 0.304, 95% CI: 0.133, 0.693).

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Conclusion

In tracheostomized patients with sTBI who received routine treatment, IOE is more conducive to decannulation and the improvement in nutritional status, aspiration pneumonia, and level of consciousness than NGT.

Oro-esophageal feeding for tracheostomized patients with severe traumatic brain injury: a randomized controlled trial.

Oro-esophageal feeding for tracheostomized patients with severe traumatic brain injury: a randomized controlled trial.

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