Presented by
Pieter Janssen
Nominated by
KU Leuven
VIPUN Medical is developing a gastric monitoring system to assist physicians in making better decisions about the mode, timing, and speed of medical nutrition. Monitoring the stomach function is especially important in the intensive care ward, where a large number of critically ill patients have impaired stomach function. Critically ill patients are often fed through a nasogastric feeding tube, and undetected stomach malfunction might lead to feeding intolerance, malnutrition, and severe complications, causing a longer hospital stay. The VIPUN Gastric Monitoring System, developed at KU Leuven, consists of a novel feeding tube with an integrated intragastric balloon and a monitoring unit. Once the tube is inserted into the stomach and connected to the monitoring unit, the inflated balloon monitors stomach function by sensing stomach contractions. The amount and intensity of contractions indicate stomach function and predict feeding intolerance, enabling physicians to adjust the infusion of medical nutrition to the patient’s stomach function.