Parents caring and sham-feeding their child born with Esophageal atresia at home while waiting for reconstructive surgery

• Published in: Pediatric surgery international Vol. 40; no. 1; p. 257
• Main Authors: Tollne, AnnaMaria, Öst, Elin, Nilsson, Tuva, Almström, Markus, Svensson, Jan F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 29.09.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Esophageal Atresia - surgery; Esophagus; Female; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original; Original Article; Parents; Parents & parenting; Pediatric Surgery; Pediatrics; Plastic Surgery Procedures - methods; Reconstructive surgery; Retrospective Studies; Surgery; Esophageal atresia; Delayed reconstructive surgery; Sham-feed; Homecare; Parents
• ISSN: 1437-9813; 0179-0358; 1437-9813
• DOI: 10.1007/s00383-024-05839-1

Purpose For children with Esophageal atresia who have to wait for reconstructive surgery, long hospital stay, delayed introduction of oral feeds and hampered oro-motor function has traditionally been draw-backs for this treatment as the patients have minimal training of oro-motor function while waiting for surgery. In this paper, we present the concept of sham-feed at home awaiting reconstructive surgery with the aim to obliviate these problems. The aim was to describe the characteristics of patients with Esophageal atresia waiting for reconstructive surgery sham-feeding at home by their parents and further describe adverse events that arose. Methods The study is a retrospective descriptive single center study on all children with a delayed reconstruction of Esophageal atresia who was sham-fed by their parents at home before reconstructive surgery between January 2010 and January 2023 at the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm. Results Nine patients where home waiting for reconstructive surgery for a median of 72 days. No adverse events were reported related to the sham-feed procedure at home. The children had reconstructive surgery at a median 120 days of age. Five of the children ate full meals orally day 8–27 after surgery. Two children ate fully before 1 year after surgery. Two children had surgery less than 1 year ago and were not eating fully orally at the time of data collection. Conclusion Sham-feeding at home by the parents was safe and feasible with the benefits of a prolonged time out of hospital awaiting reconstructive surgery.