If you or a loved one have short bowel syndrome, you’re not alone. Up to 20,000 people in the U.S. are living with short bowel syndrome1—a condition that involves unique nutrition challenges. Our board-certified nutrition support pharmacists, pharmacists, and nurses at Nutrishare understand these nutritional challenges and provide long-term home TPN support tailored to each patient’s specific needs.
As the only pharmacy in the country devoted exclusively to home TPN, our knowledge, expertise, and experience is unmatched nationally.
Short bowel syndrome (SBS) is a complex disease that occurs due to the physical or functional loss of a portion of the small intestine. This can be the result of injury, disease, birth defect, or surgery. Because the body absorbs most nutrients consumed—such as fats, carbohydrates (sugars), proteins, vitamins, minerals, and fluids—through the small intestine, parenteral nutrition (PN) is used to provide those nutrients. When the need for PN extends past the hospital and into the home, it is then referred to as home parenteral nutrition.2, 3
TPN stands for total parenteral nutrition. TPN bypasses the gastrointestinal tract and is absorbed directly into the bloodstream to fill a vital role in making up for the body’s lost nutrients, mitigating symptoms, and maintaining a better quality of life. With TPN, a central line is inserted into a large vein and nutrients are delivered directly into the bloodstream. The first few doses of TPN typically are given in the hospital. Once the patient is stabilized in the hospital on PN they can be transferred home to continue their treatment. The amount of time a person requires TPN varies. For some individuals, TPN may be a lifelong requirement. Managing the nutritional needs of people with SBS has improved remarkably during the past several years, thanks primarily to advances in home parenteral nutrition.4 These advances mean an improvement in quality of life, especially when coordinated by the experts at Nutrishare.
Our care team was designed with the long-term home TPN patient in mind. Featuring board-certified nutrition support specialists who are constantly seeking new ways to improve our patients’ quality of care. Nutrishare pharmacists, nurses, and dietitians are available to address any clinical issue and have joined the Nutrishare team specifically for their home infusion experience. Many of them hold one of the following: BCNSP (board-certified nutrition support pharmacist) or CNSC (certified nutrition support clinician), and all of them gain more specialized experience and expertise with each passing day.
Of the patients Nutrishare supports, well over half are living with SBS. As the nation’s only pharmacy focused exclusively on home TPN, we design our care to help them achieve better clinical results, which include:
In addition to monitoring lab results for nutritional deficits, we also carefully monitor the patient’s risk of developing any long-term home TPN and SBS complications. These may include:
SBS affects nutrient absorption, therefore changes in oral diet are needed to maximize tolerance and manage symptoms.8 Understanding the nutritional challenges our patients face and their wants and needs are all foundational to our system of care, which is designed around helping our patients achieve superior clinical results. We are passionate about ensuring a higher standard of home TPN care.
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