Erythromycin for Promoting the Postpyloric Placement of Feeding Tubes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background. Critically ill patients can benefit from enteral nutrition with postpyloric feeding tubes, but the low success rate limits its wide use. Erythromycin could elevate the success rate of tube insertion, but its clinical efficiency still remains controversial. Methods. Included studies must be RCTs which assessed the success rate of postpyloric feeding tube insertion using erythromycin. Results. 284 patients were enrolled in six studies. Meta-analysis showed that erythromycin significantly increases the rate of successful postpyloric feeding tube placement (RR 1.45, 95% CI (1.12, 1.86)) and did not increase the risk of adverse effects (RR 2.15, 95% CI (0.20, 22.82)). Subgroup analysis showed that unweighted feeding tubes (RR 1.47, 95% CI (1.03, 2.11)) could significantly increase the success rate. Country of study, intravenous route of erythromycin, and year of participant enrollment did not influence these results. Conclusions. Erythromycin significantly increases the success rate of postpyloric feeding tube placement. This suggests that erythromycin can be used as an auxiliary method to improve the success rate of bedside insertion.