Home enteral and parenteral nutrition in children

The prevalence of home enteral and parenteral nutrition programmes is risin g rapidly all over the world, in children as in adults. Home artificial nut rition, especially parenteral nutrition, is an expensive technology but is life-saving for many patients. The only possible alternative to home treatm ent is keeping patients in hospital, and cost-benefit studies have demonstr ated that home nutrition is about 70% more cost-effective than hospital-bas ed therapy. Although home nutrition is usually considered by children and f amilies to lead to an improvement in their quality of life, the complicatio ns of these techniques, including psychological consequences, have to be ca refully assessed and prevented.