(Rivista Internazionale - December 1997: The Awakening Unit of the St. John the Baptist Hospital - 5/6)
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Artificial nutrition is an absolute necessity for patients in a post-traumatic vegetative state. A percutaenous gastrostomy enables 3500/4000 calories per day of artificial food to be assimilated with a speed of flow fixed through an electric pump which regulates the quantity/time parameters. Feeding is by continual infusion day and night for several weeks and according to the clinical picture. Only in a second stage are boluses of centrifuged, natural food administered at fixed times In this way, by gastric filling and emptying, it is attempted to restore the sense of satiety and hunger, activating a natural feedback. Patients with tracheostomies have to be continuously treated during the course of the day to ensure normal breathing. To maintain the cardio-respiratory metabolic and internal balance, the bronchi have to be aspirated several times a day, combined with clapping techniques which encourage the detachment of secretion from the bronchial wall and Trendelenburg's position to help remove it. During the awakening stages, the patient does not possess independent or physiological mechanisms such as coughing or general mobility for keeping the air passages free. |
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