Doctors warned of B1 deficiency in liquid diets

Nutrition Health Review, Wntr, 1989

Doctors Warned of B1 Deficiency in Liquid Diets

The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), citing recent deaths related to parenteral nutrition, has urged physicians to make sure that the liquid diets they use in feeding patients intravenously are supplemented with vitamin B1. A multivitamin preparation usually added to intravenous feedings is in short supply nationally because a Chicago manufacturer, Lyphomed Inc., had to cut production after the FDA ordered a recall in July of some of the company's product. As a result, there is concern that patients on intravenous feeding will not receive vitamin B1, or thiamine, which is essential for the functioning of the cardiovascular and nervous systems.

For such patients, who normally are fed a 70% glucose solution through a needle leading directly into a large vein that leads into the heart, a shortage of the vitamin can develop in as little as a week because thiamine is used in the metabolism of the glucose. The shortage, in turn, can lead to beriberi, and in severe cases to heart failure and death. The agency's announcement came after the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition notified its 5,000 members that three patients receiving such feedings have died in recent weeks as a result of thiamine deficiency.