[Total parenteral nutrition. A 1-year experience with 96 patients]

In 1987, ninety-six surgical patients, of whom 44 were premature or newborn babies and 52 were infants or older children, received total parenteral nutrition (T.P.N.) at our hospital. A peripheral venous line was utilized on forty patients in the first group and only on 9 in the second group. The excellent results yielded by T.P.N. are self-evident from the low mortality showed by these patients. Thirty-three out of the 44 neonates and premature infants with serious surgical problems survived, being noteworthy the occurrence of just 3 deaths within a series of 13 necrotizing enterocolitis. In the series of 52 infants and older children, composed of 13 digestive patients (with 5 liver transplants), 6 tumoral, 9 neurologic, 4 renal (2 transplantations), 18 cardiac, 1 thoracic and 1 burnt, only 9 patients died. The average duration of T.P.N. was 10 days in the group of premature and newborn infants and 6 days for the nursing infants and older children, save for the 8 patients in whom the treatment had to be prolonged for a few months. We conclude that T.P.N., when applied in time and of short duration should entail no risk at all. In neonate and premature infant a peripheral vein shall be the route of choice. In the nursing infant and older child a central venous line is preferable, if possible the superior vena cava or its major tributary veins.