Effects of early enteral nutrition on patients after emergency and elective gastrointestinal surgery

Background: After gastrointestinal surgery like anastomosis, patients are usually not allowed to take feed orally for five days. This is to prevent post operative nausea and vomiting and also to protect the anastomotic site allowing it to heal. Aim: This randomized control study sought to compare the outcome of early Enteral feeding versus delayed feeding after gastrointestinal surgery. Materials and methods: 60 patients were randomly selected and classified into two groups, early feeding group and late feeding group and following were noted; anastomotic leak, infection (wound, intra-abdominal abscess, pulmonary complication, sepsis), length of hospital stay. Results: The mean length of hospital stay was 9.3 vs 10.90. The difference was 1.6 days (P value: 0.129). Wound infection was 20% vs 26.7%. 6.7% had intra-abdominal abscess in the early feeding group which was statistically insignificant. There were two patients (6.7%) with sepsis in late feeding group (p= 0.150). There were no anastomotic leak and no deaths in the both the groups. Conclusion: The present study indicated that there was no significant difference between the two groups. Late feeding doesn't confer any significant advantage. There was no advantage of dietary restriction. Hence we recommend that early post-operative feeding is safer.