The present study was designed to evaluate the tolerance of enteral
feeding in enterally-fed mechanically-ventilated patients during supine
and prone positions as judged by measuring the residual gastric volume
(RGV) and comprised 23 patients admitted to ICU. All patients were maintained
on enteral feeding at a rate of 60 ml/ hour for 6 hours and immediately
after the 6-hr period, RGV was determined and patient was turned
to the other position and enteral feeding was continued for another 6
hours and at the end of which RGV was re-estimated. All patients were
managed in both positions with head elevated for a maximum of 30o and
the study was conducted in supine position first and then patients were
turned to prone position. There was a non-significant increase in RGV in
prone position compared to that estimated in supine position. Only
4 patients had RGV of >150 ml in both positions, while the other
19 patients had a mean RGV of