Guidelines recommendations on care of adult patients receiving home parenteral nutrition: a systematic review of global practices

Background & aims: Because home parenteral nutrition (HPN) in adult patients can give rise to a variety of complications, good guidance is necessary. To achieve this, clarity and consistency in guidelines are essential. The aim of this review is to identify and compare evidence-based guidelines, and to compile a list of main recommendations, according to their evidence-based grade.

Methods: We searched Medline and the international guideline database for HPN guidelines, performed a content analysis of retrieved guidelines, and evaluated their quality. We then compiled a comparative table of guideline recommendations along with their assigned level of evidence.

Summary of results: Six systematically developed evidence-based guidelines and one expert opinion-based standard for home care were retrieved. Of these guidelines, two were exclusively devoted to HPN. Although the guidelines generally covered the same topics, most did not provide information on intravenous medication, bone metabolic disease, and indications in patients with malignant disease. Moreover, we found grading discrepancies among various guidelines, as identical recommendations were often labeled with different grades.

Conclusion: Our comparison of guidelines and standards for HPN revealed substantial differences among recommendations. Identification of these discrepancies and omissions should facilitate the development of more comprehensive and better justified guidelines in the future.