Influence of Postoperative Enteral Nutrition on Postsurgical Infections

Abstract

Although oral and enteral feeding are options, the latter may cause problems such as pain for the patient, malposition of the tube, aspiration pneumonia, sinusitis, epistaxis, and tube occlusion. The purpose of this research was to determine whether early enteral feeding has any effect on the risk of developing significant problems after major surgery. Two hundred intensive care unit (ICU) patients at Benha University Hospitals were randomly assigned to either group A (early feeding) or group B (late feeding) in this prospective cohort observational research. Albumin, prealbumin, transferrin, ALT, AST, ALP, total bilirubin, urea nitrogen, and creatinine were not significantly different between the two groups, however white blood cell counts were significantly different. We observed that 62% of Group A scored a 3, compared to 61% of Group B; 36% of Group A scored a 4, compared to 36% of Group B; 2% of Group A scored a 4, compared to 3% of Group B; and 0% of Group A scored a 4 compared to 3% of Group B. Hypoglycemia during intervention and ICU stay duration >3 days are significantly different between the two groups. When comparing the two groups, there is a notable difference in terms of the occurrence of a new infection, the peak level of C-reactive protein throughout the ICU stay, and the length of time spent on mechanical ventilation. We conclude that early postoperative enteral feeding decreases the risk of infection complications, perhaps resulting in a shorter duration of stay and less need for intensive care.