PURPOSE: to characterize the population submitted to administration of alternative feeding route admitted to a general hospital in the state of Alagoas. METHOD: data from medical records of 229 patients admitted to adult infirmary were investigated. Data referring to the administration of alternative feeding route in use and clinical aspects related to swallowing disorders were analyzed. RESULTS: there was a predominance of male participants (55.02%) in the sample. From the total sample, 70.3% of participants were diagnosed with a neurological disease and most of them used the nasogastric tube (82.53%) as feeding route. There was an association between the variables pneumonia and dysphagia (p = 0.0098). However, no association between malnutrition and dysphagia was found (p = 0.0759). There was also a high frequency of absence of data concerning symptoms of feeding difficulty as well as about justification for the use of the alternative feeding route. CONCLUSION: the population studied presented risk factors for development of dysphagia. The shortage of data revealed the little importance given to functional manifestation at the hospital context.
Deglutition Disorders; Adult; Enteral Nutrition; Epidemiology
