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Discover how RELiZORB supports your tube feeds #

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RELiZORB (immobilized lipase) cartridge
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Your body needs dietary fats

Why fat absorption is critical to your health

Fat helps absorb nutrients and vitamins, support vital organs, and maintain a healthy body. What happens if you can’t properly absorb fats?

Fat helps absorb nutrients and vitamins, support vital organs, and maintain a healthy body. What happens if you can’t properly absorb fats?

Understanding dietary fats

What makes fats so important to your health?

While fats are sometimes thought of as “bad,” they play a critical role in nutrition and health.

Balanced levels of fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins can reduce the risk of many chronic diseases and is necessary for normal development and overall health.

The inability to break down and digest fats is known as fat malabsorption.

Types of digestive enzymes and why they matter

The body uses enzymes to break down, or digest, food. There are 3 main digestive enzymes that break food down into absorbable nutrients:

  • Lipase (“lie-pace”): Breaks down fats
  • Amylase (“am-uh-lace”): Breaks down carbohydrates
  • Protease (“pro-tee-ace”): Breaks down proteins
Diagram showing how different enzymes break down different foods, with lipase shown as the one for digesting fats
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A deficiency in the enzyme lipase can lead to fat malabsorption. Learn how RELiZORB works to understand the role it can play in nutritional support.

Recognize the Risk

Which conditions can lead to fat malabsorption?

Discomfort with tube feeding isn’t something you need to learn to live with or accept. Fat malabsorption could be involved if you or someone you care for have any of these conditions:

Short bowel syndrome (SBS)

In people with SBS, a portion of the digestive tract is removed due to injury or illness. This means not enough of the digestive tract remains to fully absorb fatty acids and other nutrients, leading to issues with certain bodily functions and unpleasant symptoms.

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI)

People whose pancreas doesn’t work properly, such as those with EPI conditions like cystic fibrosis, are at risk of not getting enough vitamins and nutrients. This may be related to many different negative outcomes such as delays in normal growth and development.

Other conditions associated with fat malabsorption include:

  • Inflammatory bowel disease
  • Acute or chronic pancreatitis
  • Pancreatic and other gastrointestinal (GI) cancers
  • Trauma or critical care
  • Abdominal surgery

Watch to understand the impact of SBS and EPI

These videos offer a deeper dive into how these conditions impact the body to help you understand the role RELiZORB can play.

Fat malabsorption in SBS

Find out how SBS changes how your body digests nutrients and the impact it has on fat absorption.

Video explaining how problems with pancreatic enzymes can affect how your body digests fats

Fat malabsorption in EPI

Fat malabsorption in EPI

See how pancreatic enzymes can affect digestion, especially when it comes to fats.

Confirm the signs and symptoms

What can fat malabsorption feel like?

Fat that isn’t absorbed properly can have an uncomfortable impact on daily life for you or the person you care for. When the body can’t absorb the fats it needs, it can miss out on energy, nutrients, and vitamins. This can result in unpleasant or disruptive symptoms.

Don’t get used to
THE BURDENS
of fat malabsorption.

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Fat malabsorption can look or feel like:

  • Diarrhea, or watery stool
  • Bloating and gas
  • Steatorrhea, or loose, greasy stool
  • Weight loss
  • Abdominal pain and discomfort
  • Fatigue, or feeling unusually tired
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Left untreated, fat malabsorption can lead to:

  • Malnutrition, or poor nutrition
  • Vitamin deficiency, or lack of proper vitamins
  • Chronic infections, or infections that don’t go away
  • Inability to gain weight
  • Growth and development delays in children
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Over time, fat malabsorption can slow down normal growth and development in children.

Watch Fat Malabsorption Videos

Dive into the RELiZORB Spotlight Series

Headshot of Dr. Candi Jump, DO, MSED, CNSC

Learn from Dr. Candi Jump, DO, MSED, CNSC, as she explores fat malabsorption in the RELiZORB Spotlight Series

Hear from an expert on the signs, symptoms, and management of fat malabsorption and the benefits of improving fat absorption for your health.

General malabsorption vs fat malabsorption

Uncover the vital role of proper fat absorption, and learn about the signs and symptoms that can lead to a diagnosis of fat malabsorption.

Fat malabsorption in SBS

Find out what happens to someone with SBS when fat isn’t absorbed properly and how to help reduce symptoms.

Importance of tube feeding when managing SBS

Learn why it’s important to transition from parenteral nutrition to enteral nutrition—or tube feeding—especially in people with SBS.

Address with RELiZORB

What can be done about fat malabsorption with tube feeding?

Talk to your healthcare provider about the symptoms you or the person you care for experience with tube feeding and how RELiZORB could help. Watch to learn how Dr. Kinberg, MD, helps relieve SBS symptoms in a 6-year-old boy.

RELiZORB connects directly to your feeding tube and helps break down fats to be more easily absorbed, which may help to reduce fat malabsorption symptoms.

A diagram showing how RELiZORB connects to your feeding tube, with labels indicating flow from the pump to the patient.

RELiZORB is indicated for use in pediatric patients (ages 1 year and above) and adult patients to hydrolyze fats in enteral formula.

Warnings
  • RELiZORB is for use with enteral tube feeding only.
See more
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RELiZORB is indicated for use in pediatric patients (ages 1 year and above) and adult patients to hydrolyze fats in enteral formula.

Warnings
  • RELiZORB is for use with enteral tube feeding only.
  • RELiZORB should not be connected to any intravenous (IV) line, setup, or system.
  • Medications should not be administered through the RELiZORB cartridge. Do not add medications to the formula or tubing before RELiZORB. The passage of medications through RELiZORB may adversely affect the medications or the ability of RELiZORB to hydrolyze fats.
  • Fibrosing Colonopathy - Fibrosing colonopathy is a rare, serious adverse reaction associated with high-dose use of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy in the treatment of patients with cystic fibrosis. The underlying mechanism of fibrosing colonopathy remains unknown. Patients with fibrosing colonopathy should be closely monitored because some patients may be at risk of progressing to stricture formation. RELiZORB contains lipase enzyme that is not from a porcine source. The lipase is bound to the beads, and this lipase-bead complex (iLipase) is retained within the RELiZORB cartridge. Continue to follow your physician’s guidance and porcine pancreatic enzyme labeling regarding porcine pancreatic enzyme use when used in conjunction with RELiZORB.
Cautions and Precautions
  • Do not re-use RELiZORB. RELiZORB is a single-use product. Re-use may result in contamination of the product. If re-used, RELiZORB may not effectively hydrolyze fats.
  • Do not break, alter, or place excess pressure on any part of RELiZORB. Any compromise of the structural integrity of RELiZORB may lead to improper connection to enteral feeding supplies, formula leakage or risk of contamination.
  • Do not use RELiZORB after the date marked on the pouch.
  • Do not use blenderized formulas with RELiZORB. A detailed listing of enteral formulas compatible with RELiZORB can be found at www.relizorb.com/compatibility.
  • RELiZORB is designed for use with enteral feeding pump systems with low flow/no flow alarms and enteral syringes for manual bolus by syringe (push or gravity). A detailed listing of formulas, pumps, and enteral feeding supplies compatible with RELiZORB can be found at www.relizorb.com/compatibility.
  • Do not use excessive force when using RELiZORB with enteral syringe push feeding methods.
  • Do not rush bolus feeds. Follow guidance from your healthcare professional on how long it should take you to complete your tube feeding.
  • Ensure all inlet and outlet connectors on RELiZORB and enteral feeding supplies are clean and dry prior to making connections.
  • In order to ensure product performance, store RELiZORB in its pouch either refrigerated or at room temperature (2°C to 27°C; 36°F to 80°F).
  • RELiZORB is indicated for use with enteral feeding only; patients should follow physician’s guidance for pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) use for meals and snacks. Patients and patient caregivers should follow physician’s guidance regarding the need for pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) during enteral feeding.

Review full product information for RELiZORB in the Instructions for Use.