A Prospective Study on Early Versus Late Enteral Feeding in Gastro Intestinal Surgeries in Tertiary Care Centre

Aim: Study of early versus late enteral feeding in gastro intestinal surgeries. Objectives: To study whether early enteral feeding within 48 hours of bowel surgeries is tolerable to the patient irrespective of bowel sounds To study whether early enteral feeding within 48 hours of bowel surgeries is benecial to the patient irrespective of bowel sounds To study complications associated with early and late feeding in bowel surgeries. Materials & Methods: Patients who underwent gastrointestinal surgeries in Osmania general hospital and Nizam institute of medical sciences both in emergency and elective setup like anastomoses, primary repair or modied grahams patch repair or Cellan jones repair, hemicolectomy, Frey's procedure, whipple's procedure, stoma reversal were selected who met the inclusion criteria. Subjects were divided randomly into cases and control group. Patients in cases group were started oral sips of uids within 48 hours of surgery initially with clear liquids, fruit juices, tender coconut water, milk later gradually increased the feeds then started on soft diet after 24 hours of starting oral sips of uids then high protein diet. Ryles tube removed after 24 hours in study group and enteral feeds given through oral route in sitting position. Patients in control group were given maintenance uids with dextrose, normal saline and ringers lactate and also TPN in some cases. Conclusion: In this study rate of surgical site infection , pulmonary infections, fever is less in the early feeding group. Duration of the hospital stay is reduced, appearance of bowel sounds, passage of atus and stools is early in the early feed group when compared to the patients who were on conventional feeds. There is no signicant difference between the two groups in terms of anastomotic leak, emergency and elective type of operation, benign or malignant pathology, mortality, ileus and distension, nausea and vomiting and presence of gangrenous gut.