Table 2.

Characteristics of studies of nasogastric tube feeding.

Reference	Setting	Design	Control group	APACHE II Score	Feeding start	Feeding formulation	Duration of nutrition	Quality of studies§
Eatock et al. 2000 [76]	UK	Cohort study	N/A	10 (4–28)#	<48 hours of admission	Semielemental	Not stated	N/A
Eatock et al. 2005 [58]	UK	RCT	Nasojejunal	10 (7–18)#	72 (24–72) hours after onset	Semielemental	5 days	14
Kumar et al. 2006 [59]	India	RCT	Nasojejunal	10.5 ± 3.8‡	48–72 hours of admission	Semielemental	7 days	13
Eckerwall et al. 2006 [41]	Sweden	RCT	Parenteral	10 (8–13)#	<24 hours of admission	Polymeric	6 (5–9)# days	14
Singh et al. 2012 [64]	India	RCT	Nasojejunal	8.5 (2–19)#	10 (4–23)# days after onset	Semielemental	7 days	13

^§Range of quality score is 0 to 16; ^#values are median (range); ^‡values are mean ± standard deviation. Abbreviations: APACHE: Acute physiology and chronic health evaluation; RCT: randomised controlled trial; N/A: not available.