Early Enteral Nutrition in Patients Undergoing Intestinal Anastomosis

Abstract

A prospective longitudinal study of 54 patients who underwent intestinal anastomosis and were started on early enteral nutrition at the University Hospital of the Central University of Venezuela (November 2022 to September 2023), all of them fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Taking as early enteral nutrition two study groups: GROUP 1 tolerance at 24 hours and GROUP 2. Tolerance at 48 hours. Hospital stay and complications were evaluated. Of the 54 patients 40(74.1%) were operated on in emergency surgery 46(85.2%) patients were male. There was no difference in the mean ages of the two diet groups (P=0.254), the mean age was 33.9/14.8 years. There was no statistically significant difference (P=0.086) in the mean number of days of hospitalization (4.7/2.4 days) between patients according to the type of diet. Vomiting occurred in 20.37%, with no statistically significant differences between the groups of patients with diet 1 and 2. There were 2 (3.7%) cases of leakage that required reintervention, and this complication was not associated with the initiation of a particular type of diet, type of surgery, surgical time or site of injury. Early enteral nutrition is a viable option in patients undergoing intestinal anastomosis, is not associated with the incidence of dehiscence, is well tolerated by the patients, has acceptable complications, most frequently associated with vomiting, and reduces hospital stay.