[Investigation of the Safety of and Patient Satisfaction with iEat®, the Support Food for the Recovery of Eating Function in Patients with Carcinomatosis - Related Gastrointestinal Passage Disorder].

OBJECTIVE

iEat®, a support food for the recovery of eating function, is food that can be easily masticated with little power and has suitable fluidity for enzyme processing, regardless of its normal appearance. We provided iEat® to 5 patients with carcinomatosis-related gastrointestinal passage disorder who could take fluid foods and investigated the stability of iEat® and patient satisfaction with the food.

METHODS

We provided regular diets for lunch on the first and 7th day, and provided iEat® from the 2nd to the 6th day. The stability of iEat(R) was evaluated based on the presence and grade of abdominal pain, diarrhea, sense of abdominal distension, nausea, and vomiting, according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE v4.0, JCOG). The patients assessed their satisfaction by using 6 grades of taste, appearance, amount, difficulty of intake, and overall valuation.

RESULTS

One patient could not continue the study because of vomiting from overeating of iEat(R). In the other patients, iEat(R) induced approximately the same adverse events as did the regular diets. All of the patients expressed better satisfaction with iEat® than with the regular diets.

CONCLUSIONS

Although patient management for overeating is necessary, iEat® might provide good quality of life in terms of eating satisfaction to the patients with carcinomatosis-related gastrointestinal passage disorder.