Parents caring and sham-feeding their child born with Esophageal atresia at home while waiting for reconstructive surgery
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In brief
In brief
This study demonstrates that parent-administered sham feeding at home is safe and feasible for infants with esophageal atresia awaiting delayed reconstructive surgery. Nine patients spent a median of 72 days at home without adverse events, allowing oro-motor skill development while reducing hospital stay burden before definitive repair.
- Sham-feeding at home by parents while awaiting esophageal atresia repair is safe with no reported adverse events in this 9-patient cohort.
- Home sham-feeding allows prolonged out-of-hospital time (median 72 days) and promotes oro-motor skill development before reconstructive surgery.
- Most children (5/9) achieved full oral feeding within 8-27 days post-repair, suggesting sham-feeding may facilitate post-operative feeding success.
- Delayed esophageal atresia reconstruction (median age 120 days) is feasible with parent-administered sham-feeding as a bridge strategy.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Abstract
Purpose
For children with Esophageal atresia who have to wait for reconstructive surgery, long hospital stay, delayed introduction of oral feeds and hampered oro-motor function has traditionally been draw-backs for this treatment as the patients have minimal training of oro-motor function while waiting for surgery. In this paper, we present the concept of sham-feed at home awaiting reconstructive surgery with the aim to obliviate these problems. The aim was to describe the characteristics of patients with Esophageal atresia waiting for reconstructive surgery sham-feeding at home by their parents and further describe adverse events that arose.
Methods
The study is a retrospective descriptive single center study on all children with a delayed reconstruction of Esophageal atresia who was sham-fed by their parents at home before reconstructive surgery between January 2010 and January 2023 at the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm.
Results
Nine patients where home waiting for reconstructive surgery for a median of 72 days. No adverse events were reported related to the sham-feed procedure at home. The children had reconstructive surgery at a median 120 days of age. Five of the children ate full meals orally day 8–27 after surgery. Two children ate fully before 1 year after surgery. Two children had surgery less than 1 year ago and were not eating fully orally at the time of data collection.
Conclusion
Sham-feeding at home by the parents was safe and feasible with the benefits of a prolonged time out of hospital awaiting reconstructive surgery.