[Updating enteral feeding by catheter]

Intestinal nutrition can be administered orally or by means of a catheter; the latter method is the focus of this article. The authors' objective is to provide up-to-date information in a succinct manner about the enteral feeding technique. The authors hope health professionals know the advantages as well as the inconveniences of the latest intestinal nutrition advances regarding access ways and the means to administer these. Intestinal nutrition formulas will not be dealt with in this article. However, a health professional should know that there is a wide variety of diets available depending on the complexity of macronutrients included in a diet, the quantity of proteins in a mixture, and that these are designed, in addition to feeding, to treat the specific pathological process a patient suffers from, such as diabetes of cancer.