New advancements in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

Concerns for long-term intensive medical care are starting to focus on the matter of long-term nourishment of unconscious patients. It seems that the limited use of fluids through IV is most likely causing side effects from the lack of using the digestive tract. Experimentation has begun in regard to attempts to feed patients that have been in a coma for a month or more with solid foods - albeit solid foods that are soft, e.g. bread, crackers, etc. Surprisingly, one of the factors of unwanted side effects are foods that are too soupy or liquidy. It got to the point where the liquids caused breathing problems by entering the trachea and even the lungs. Ironically, one effort to try to counter-act this problem is to make food a bit more solid such as with act of toasting bread in contrast to the softer regular, non-toasted bread. Though results have not been fully assessed, the initial efforts have been promising to the point of now referring to patients using this procedure as comatoast.