Q:  How you define trophic enteral feeding?

Answer: Trophic feeding is a small volume of balanced enteral nutrition insufficient for the patient's nutritional needs but produce positive gastrointestinal and some systemic benefit. If less than 25% of the patient's nutritional needs are administered enterally, the feeding is considered trophic. The commonly identified benefits of trophic feeding are improved feeding tolerance, maintenance of intestinal function, and prevention of intestinal bacterial overgrowth and bacterial translocation.