A study of patient experience of parenteral nutrition support
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A study of Home Parenteral Support patients experience of supplementary vitamin and mineral regimens
IRAS ID
356405
Contact name
Claire Hargraves
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Hull University Teaching Hospitals
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Home parenteral support (HPS) is a treatment for people who cannot absorb enough food from their bowel; this is known as intestinal failure (IF). Home parenteral support is an artificial way to give nutrition (food) and hydration (fluid), when unable to absorb/eat enough nutrition orally
Due to growing demand for home parenteral nutrition in the UK, health services have changed how home parenteral nutrition is supplied in recent years. Before this change the majority of regimens were compounded this means, the nutrition is made to a specific patient’s needs.
To ensure compounded home parenteral support is supplied to those with the greatest need, patients are now managed on ready-made bags where possible, these bags have set amounts of nutrients which cannot be changed and do not include vitamin and minerals, sometimes known as an off the shelf regimen. If a patients’ needs cannot be met with ready-made bags alone the second line of treatment a combination of compounded bags and ready-made bag, this is known as a hybrid regimen.
Due to ready-made bags not containing vitamin and minerals, people on hybrid or off the shelf regimens often require additional (supplementary) oral or intravenous vitamins and minerals. Hybrid and off the shelf regimens can also be lacking in enough fluid and/or salts to meet an individual’s full needs and they may require additional intravenous fluids, which can make regimens very complicated.
The aim of this study is to find out about the experiences of patients requiring supplementary vitamin and mineral protocols. We want to do this so that we can look at any areas of difficulty for patients with the aim of making improvements to better support patients needing supplementary vitamins and minerals.
We will ask around 12-15 participants to take part in an interview exploring their experience of vitamin and mineral protocols.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/EM/0213
Date of REC Opinion
30 Sep 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion