Indications: an unconscious patient (for example, a patient on artificial lung ventilation); swallowing disorders; lack of appetite due to illness (eg, cancer, sepsis, HIV); obstruction of the upper respiratory tract or esophagus; psychological problems (such as anorexia); psychiatric problems (such as severe dementia).

Contraindications – shock, non-functioning digestive tract; bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract; acute abdominal clinical picture, etc.

Purpose of the procedure: the student knows how to feed the patient through a nasogastric tube using the bolus method.

The bolus method can provide:
1. With the gravity method - a syringe (50 - 100ml) without a piston is added to the lumen of the probe. The feeding mixture is poured into the syringe and the rate of introduction is adjusted by raising the syringe higher or lowering the syringe lower.

2. With a syringe - the feeding mixture is drawn into the syringe and injected into the stomach with the help of a plunger.
3. With a feeding pump – the required dose is administered with the help of an enteral feeding system and a pump.

Using the bolus method, up to 300 ml of feeding solution can be administered at one time, over a period of 5-20 minutes. The introduction is repeated at regular intervals (up to 6 times a day).