What Is a Corpak Feeding Tube?

A Corpak feeding tube is a thin yellow polyurethane tube that carries liquid feed through the nose, with the tip in the stomach or farther along in the small intestine. Nothing should go down the tube until a trained clinician has confirmed that the tip is in the gut, not the airway.

CORPAK MedSystems made the line, and Avanos Medical sells it today under the CORFLO name. Halyard Health agreed on April 11, 2016 to buy the company for $174 million, and the deal closed in May 2016. This guide covers sizes and connectors, the guide wire, the placement check, and how long the current instructions allow one tube to stay in.

If a chart says Corpak, CORFLO, or a French size, it is pointing at this nasal feeding tube. A wide tube used only to empty the stomach is a different device, and a bedside tracker sold as CORTRAK is a different device again.

Where Does a Corpak Feeding Tube Sit?

The tube enters one nostril, crosses the back of the nose and throat, and goes down the esophagus. The route name comes from where the tip is meant to stop. The person who needs it is someone whose nutrition has to come as intermittent or continuous tube feeding.

• Nasogastric: The tip rests in the stomach, which is the target when the stomach can accept feed.
• Nasoduodenal: The tip sits in the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine.
• Nasojejunal: The tip is advanced into the jejunum when feed in the stomach is not safe or does not empty.

Clinicians use the Corpak name for that whole nasal job, including when they steer the tip past the stomach. The brand also appears on gastrostomy kits that pass through the abdomen into the stomach. Those kits follow a different set of instructions. If the tube you can see leaves the belly rather than the nose, ask whether it is a gastrostomy before you follow nasal-tube rules.

How Does a Corpak Tube Differ From a Drainage Tube?

On a ward, both devices get called an NG tube. The order is what separates them. A CORFLO tube is indicated for intermittent or continuous feeding by the nasogastric or nasoenteric route. A drainage tube is placed to empty the stomach, and listings of this feeding line describe it as smaller than tubes built mainly for decompression.

Feed belongs in the gut, through an enteral connector. The difference between a Corpak and an NG tube is easy to miss when both lines say NG on the same flow sheet.

Corpak Feeding Tube Sizes and Connectors

The CORFLO nasogastric and nasointestinal catalog lists 135 codes, and the rows are yellow tubes. Diameter and length are the numbers that change the fit, and not every diameter is sold in every length. Pediatric codes sit in the same list as adult ones.

French (Fr) measures the outside of the tube, not the hole in the middle. Divide the French number by 3 to get the outer width in millimeters, so a 12 Fr tube is 4 mm across. Two tubes with the same French size can still differ inside if the wall thickness differs.

Reading One Corpak Package Code

A single code carries more than a French size. Code 20-5431 is one adult tube in the catalog, and its product page is where the extra lines show up.

CODE 20-5431 ON THE PRODUCT PAGE

• Length: Listed as 43 inches and as 109 cm.
• Tip: Weighted, and listed at 3 grams.
• Color and X-ray: Yellow, and the tube is radiopaque, so it shows on an X-ray.
• Sterile flag: Marked non-sterile, with sterilization required before use.
• ENFit: Not fitted on this code.

Sterile and non-sterile versions both exist in the family, so the code in your hand is the one that counts. A neighboring code can share the yellow tube and still change the connector, the weight, or that sterile flag. These tubes are prescription devices.

Three Connectors on a Corpak Tube

The end in your hand decides what can be attached. A Luer fitting can also lock onto an IV line, which is the match ENFit and ANTI-IV are built to prevent. The instructions show a feed port and a side port so a flush can be given without taking the feed set off.

• Universal: Accepts both a Luer syringe and an oral syringe, so it needs the most care at the bedside.
• ANTI-IV: Shaped to resist a connection to an IV line.
• ENFit: Built to the enteral standard ISO 80369-3, so it mates with ENFit syringes and sets rather than with an IV Luer.

Feed is given by syringe or by an administration set on the feeding port. If the set will not seat, do not force it and do not bridge it with a random adapter. Ask for the set that matches the connector printed on the package.

What Do the Stylet and the CORTRAK System Do?

A stylet is the guide wire some packages already have inside the tube. It stiffens the soft polyurethane during insertion, and it comes out only after the tip is confirmed. Tubes sold with a stylet carry a water-activated lubricant on the tip and in the inner channel so the wire can slide once the side port is flushed.

Do not slide a stylet into a tube that was not packaged with one, because the wire can leave through the far end. Do not put the wire back in once the tube is in the body. A weight is a separate choice: weighted tubes use a tungsten-filled tip, and non-weighted tubes are listed for placements that do not call for one.

CORTRAK is a different wire. CORTRAK 2 is a bedside screen that tracks a coil at the end of a transmitting stylet while a clinician advances the tube. The CORTRAK 2 filing K220588 limits that use to Avanos feeding tubes of 8 Fr or larger, and the labeling still requires a second method to confirm the tip. A package that does not say CORTRAK, and does not say electromagnetic transmitting stylet, has an ordinary guide wire, not a transmitter.

How Do Clinicians Place a Corpak Feeding Tube?

You do not insert this tube yourself. The CORFLO instructions dated July 11, 2017 limit insertion to trained staff working to the hospital protocol. Later notices about tube life did not turn placement into a home procedure.

1. Explain and position: Staff explain the procedure when the person can take it in, then sit the person up, or use a Fowler’s position if that is what they can tolerate.
2. Set the head: The person should not lean forward, and the head and neck should not be tipped back.
3. Measure: With the ports closed, staff set the exit port at the tip of the nose, run the tube to the earlobe, then to the xiphoid at the bottom of the breastbone, and read the centimeter mark.
4. Advance under protocol: The pass through the nose follows the method the hospital uses.
5. Prove the tip, then free the wire: Position is confirmed before any flush. On a tube packed with a stylet, staff then flush the side port with up to 10 ml of water and remove the wire. The wire is not put back in.
6. Secure and record: The tube is held with the securement that unit uses, and the centimeter number at the nostril is written down.

The wire is already out before feeding starts, and the centimeter number on the chart is the one you will compare at the next check. If the packet did not include a wire, nobody should add one.

How to Check a Corpak Tube Before a Feed

Water, feed, and medicine all wait on the same rule. The instructions say position has to be confirmed before the tube is flushed or used. The NHS enduring standards for tube checks name two acceptable ways to confirm the first placement of a nasogastric feeding tube: a gastric pH in the range 1 to 5.5, or an X-ray.

Those standards also name the checks that do not count. Do not inject air and listen with a stethoscope, the whoosh test, because a tube in the lung can still make a sound over the stomach. Do not use blue litmus paper. Do not treat calm breathing, or the look of the fluid, as proof.

The centimeter mark is the check between those tests. Compare the number at the nostril with the number written at placement before you use the tube, and leave the tape in a way that does not drag that number to a new place. A change means you stop and get position confirmed again.

Use the pH range only as your team taught it for a stomach tip. If the goal was the small intestine, follow the confirmation method written for that placement. An intestinal tip is not sitting in stomach acid, and this tube is built so an X-ray can show it along its length.

Flushing a Corpak Tube and Replacing It

A thin tube blocks when feed or medicine sits in it. The instructions give a flush schedule, and they forbid forcing a syringe to clear a block. The updated text also sets a validated use period, which is the line to read if an older habit was to leave the same tube in until it failed.

FLUSH AND USE PERIOD

• Routine flush: Every 4 hours, with up to 20 ml of water, and also before and after medicines or when a feed is interrupted.
• Infants and children: The same moments, with up to 10 ml of water.
• Force: Do not use vigorous syringe pressure to irrigate, give liquids, or unblock the tube.
• Use period: A product page restating the updated instructions says the tube is validated for up to 30 days.
• Sooner: Replace the tube when it no longer works, or when the clinician says the person’s condition calls for a change.

The July 25, 2025 field safety notice, numbered FCA-2025-003, came after reports of clogs that would not clear and of tubes that burst or tore. The notice says trained users could keep using the tubes. Wording approved in December 2024 and released in March 2025 was there to spell out the use period and the steps for a blocked tube.

Australia’s regulator logged the same action as a Class II product correction, running from September 4, 2025 to December 18, 2025. The notice names infrequent harm that can follow use or misuse, including feed or medicine in the airway, a puncture, and a missed dose. If a gentle flush at the volume you were taught does not clear the tube, stop and call the team that placed it.

When to Call About a Corpak Feeding Tube

Stop the feed and call the clinician managing the tube. Use local emergency services if breathing is the problem. Any one of the signs below is a reason to pause.

• The mark moved: The centimeter number at the nose does not match the number you were given.
• The check failed: You cannot get an aspirate, or the pH is outside the range written on your own plan.
• Breathing changes: New coughing, choking, trouble breathing, or feed coming back in a way you were told is a warning.
• The tube will not flush: A gentle flush, at the volume you were taught, does not clear it.
• The tube is out or bleeding: It has fallen out, you can see new bleeding, or the person is pulling at it and you cannot keep it still.
• You were not taught the check: Nobody showed you how to confirm position. Do not guess with air and a stethoscope.

After a face or skull injury, a nasal tube is a specialist decision, because the path behind the nose is not always intact. Placement and the first confirmation belong with the team that can image the tip. When you call, give the package code, the recorded centimeter mark, and the connector type, because those three details pick the right instructions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can You Drink by Mouth With a Corpak Feeding Tube?

The tube does not set that rule. Your swallow plan does. Some people are allowed sips, and some have the tube because swallowing is not safe. Take by mouth only what the speech or diet order names, and ask before you add a drink that was not on the plan.

What If a Corpak Tube Slides out a Few Centimeters?

Stop the feed and do not push the tube back in. Look at the centimeter number at the nostril and compare it with the number written down at placement. A change means the tip may have moved, so the team has to confirm position before the next water, medicine, or feed.

Is a Corpak Feeding Tube Used in an MRI Scanner?

Product listings describe MRI use only after the stylet is out. One CORTRAK 2 listing sets that limit at 3 tesla or below once the stylet is removed. Tell the scanner staff the exact product code on your package, and do not assume a guide wire left inside is safe to scan.

Are Corpak Feeding Tubes Free of Latex?

The instructions mark this tube as not made with natural rubber latex, DEHP, BPA, or PVC. A latex allergy still belongs on the chart, because tape, a securement device, or a feeding set is a separate product and is not covered by the tube’s material note.

Can a Child Have a Corpak Feeding Tube?

Yes. The catalog includes pediatric tubes, including a 6 French, 22 inch code, plus 5 French sizes for smaller patients. Infant and child flushes in the instructions stay at up to 10 ml of water. The French size and length should match that child’s measurement, not an adult order copied onto the chart.

The name on the package identifies the brand. The number at the nostril, a connector that seats on an enteral syringe, and a confirmed tip are what make the first feed safe to start. If any one of those is missing, the tube waits.

Disclaimer: This article is an educational guide to the Corpak CORFLO nasal feeding tube and is informational only. It is not medical advice, nursing instruction, or a product prescription, and it does not replace the instructions for your exact product code. Ask the qualified clinician managing the tube, or a registered dietitian on that team, before you flush, give medicine, change a securement, or replace a tube. Sizes, connectors, check ranges, and the stated use period reflect the manufacturer instructions, regulator notices, and clinical standards cited here, and they can change.