A Comparative Study Between Early vs Late Enteral Feeding in Post Operative Patients Undergoing Elective Laparotomies in Agmc & GBP Hospital

Introduction: In recent times, there has been a surge in popularity and interest towards early enteral nutrition (EN). In terms of wound and respiratory infections, hospital stays, and death, some argue that early enteral feeding produces better outcomes than delayed enteral feeding, and vice versa. Early enteral nutrition refers to any oral intake—such as supplemented oral feeding or registered oral intake- as well as any type of tube feeding—gastric, duodenal, or jejunal—that starts within 24 hours following surgery and has a caloric content. Aim: The study's objective is to examine the effects of early and late enteral nutrition after surgery in patients undergoing open cholecystectomy at Agartala Government Medical College's Department of General Surgery (AGMC). Materials and methods: One and a half years, or from January 2021 to June 2022, a prospective longitudinal study on one hundred patients who underwent elective laparotomy (open cholecystectomy) at AGMC & GBP hospital was carried out in the department of General Surgery at AGMC. Result: Patients in the early enteral nutrition group were 35.14 years old on average, while those in the late enteral nutrition group were 36.84 years old on average. The ratio of female to male in the early enteral group is 13.33%, whereas in the late enteral group, it is 11.22%. In the early enteral nutrition group, feed tolerance was higher than in the late enteral nutrition group, with 43/54 (79.6%) versus 35/46 (76.08%). On post-operative day 4, 75.9% of the late enteral feeding group and 69.5% of the early enteral feeding group were released from the hospital. Normal peristaltic sounds were detected after two days following surgery in 90.19% of the early enteral feeding group and 63.2% of the late enteral feeding group, which was considerably less than the early fed group. Conclusion: According to a study, feeding early yields greater results than eating later.Patients accepted early feeding just as well, and it allows for a shorter hospital stay, which lowers treatment costs. To further validate the study ndings, a bigger multi-centric investigation is necessary to show statistically signicant variations in the outcomes.