[Physiopathology of continuous enteral feeding. Application to several major digestive system disease syndromes]

The first chapter looks at the advantages of continuous oral feeding (COF) over conventional oral feeding, from a physiological and physiopathological point of view. From this discussion the indications and contraindications for this type of feeding are drawn. Then a few major diseases of the digestive tract are examined: diseases of the bile salts, intra-luminal bacterial proliferation, acute bacterial diarrhoea, isufficiency of exocrine pancreatic secretion. In each case the use off continuous oral feeding is suggested.