الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: Critically ill patients who receive enteral nutrition suffer from many gastric complications and gastric intolerance seems to be the most common gastrointestinal complications. Abdominal massage is a non-pharmacological technique easily applied by nurses to decrease gastric intolerance without side effects. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effect of abdominal massage on gastric residual volume among critically ill patients receiving enteral feeding. Method: A quasi-experimental design was used to conduct this study in the medical intensive care unit of Kafrelshiekh University Hospital. A convenience sample of 110 patients was randomly assigned to the massage group (n=55) and the control group (n=55). Massage group received the abdominal massage intervention and the control group received the routine care of the unit. Enteral nutrition follow up tool was used to collect data for this study. Results: The results revealed statistically significant differences between both groups regarding the implementation of abdominal massage (P <0.001).Conclusion: Implementation of the abdominal massage was significantly effective in reducing the gastric residual volume among critically ill patients receiving enteral nutrition.Recommendations: Critical care nurses should be incorporating the abdominal massage as a daily routine care in intensive care units to achieve good patient’s outcomes. Further large-scale investigations are recommended to enrich the evidence related to abdominal massage techniques.