Postoperative and enteral feeding following abdominal surgery. Clinical study using a peptide diet
Merkle, N.M.; Dölp, R.; Wiedeck, H.
Der Chirurg; Zeitschrift für Alle Gebiete der Operativen Medizen 51(8): 524-528
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0009-4722 PMID: 6778673 Document Number: 161607
To assess the value of early postoperative feeding with a chemically defined oligopeptide diet, 20 patients were examined after cholecystectomy. The patients were randomly selected for conventional treatment (water, electrolytes, and carbohydrates by intravenous route) or for feeding with the elementary diet (water, electrolytes, carbohydrates, fat short-chain peptides via a jejunal tube). The clinical and metabolic course of the ten patients fed with the elementary diet was good; they had a positive nitrogen balance by the second postoperative day. The results suggest that enteral tube feeding with a chemically defined oligopeptide diet is possible even in the early postoperative period after gastrointestinal operations and perhaps a definite alternative to parenteral nutrition.