The Development of Total Parenteral Nutrition

The first patient to receive complete nourishment of a patient by intravenous infusion independent of the alimentary tract was an infant girl born with near-total small bowel atresia. Total parenteral nutrition, the intravenous infusion of nutrients, has been attempted since Harvey's description of the circulatory system in the early 17th century. The modern era of parenteral nutrition began in the early 20th century, when infusions of glucose, plasma, and emulsified fat into humans proved feasible. Robert Elman, working in the 1930s and 1940s, demonstrated that carefully prepared protein hydrolysates could be safely infused intravenously and incorporated by the body. Stanley Dudrick and Douglas Wilmore, surgeon researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, worked through the many details of preparation, administration, and clinical monitoring in beagle puppies before testing them on adult patients malnourished from a variety of surgical complications and gastrointestinal conditions. They applied their techniques and formulations on a newborn wasting away from congenital absence of the small bowel, the baby growing and developing for several months while being nourished completely by total parenteral nutrition. Their techniques, inspired by patients with progressive malnutrition from devastating intestinal conditions and malformations, form the basis of the practice of intravenous nutrition practiced today.