General practitioner prescribing of total parenteral nutrition at home

An increasing number of patients, returning to the community after major surgical procedures, receive short- or long-term total parenteral nutrition at home. As total parenteral nutrition is initiated by specialist hospital centres patients may find themselves a considerable distance from that centre when they return home. The hospital may therefore relinquish responsibility for funding the supply of parenteral fluid to a more local source.This report describes how total parenteral nutrition can be managed by a general practitioner.