Résumé : A retrospective survey was performed in 1994, involving 496 adult Home Parenteral Nutrition (HPN) cases newly enrolled in the year 1993 from 75 centres in 13 European countries. From the 8 countries having registered more than 80% of cases (423 patients), incidences and prevalences ranged from 0.2 to 4.6 and 0.3 to 12.2 patients/106 population/year. In the patients studied, the diagnosis was cancer in 42%, Crohn's disease in 15%, vascular diseases in 13%, radiation enteritis in 8%, AIDS in 4% and other non malignant non AIDS diseases in 18%. Short bowel syndrome and intestinal obstruction were the two major indications for HPN in 31% and 22%, respectively. Seventy-three percent of the centres had a nutrition team. The route of HPN was a tunnelled venous central catheter in 73%, cyclical nocturnal infusions were used in 90% of patients, intravenous feeding was the sole source of nutrition in 33%, and only 44% undertook HPN unaided. The present report indicates that cancer has now become the main indication for HPN in Europe; there was however a heterogeneous distribution of disease amongst the reporting countries. The observed 9 (6-12) month probability of survival was poor in AIDS (n = 8; 12%) and cancer patients (n = 78; 29%) but better for the other HPN indications (n = 115; 92%).