The effect of early oral nutrition on decreasing the complications and hospitalization duration following laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery Abstract

Background and objective: Recently, some studies have been conducted to assess whether different abdominal surgeries can benefit from early oral nutrition, and it is seems that early nutrition is beneficial in terms of reducing post surgery morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to consider the effect of early oral nutrition on decreasing the complications and hospitalization duration following laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery. Methods: 100 patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomly divided into two groups: early feeding (intervention group, n=50) and routine feeding (control group, n = 50). After surgery, all of these patients were evaluated in terms of vomiting, nausea, hearing of bowel sound, flatus passing, stools passing, and duration of admission. Results: In the intervention group, 7 (14%) patients were male and 43 (86%) patients were female and in the control group, 9 (18%) patients were male and 41 (82%) patients were female (P = 0.585). The mean age of patients in the intervention group was 44.98 ± 17.8 years and 46.30 ± 15.24 years in the control group (P = 0.969). There was no significant different between the two groups in terms of frequency of nausea (54% in the intervention group and 48% in the control group and P = 0.548) and vomiting (34% in the intervention group and 30% in the control group and P = 0.668). The mean time of hearing of bowel sounds in the intervention group was significantly lower than the control group (12.79 ± 4.99 vs. 16.09 ± 4.76 and P = 0.002). Mean time of onset of abdominal function in the intervention group was lower than the control group (15.79 ± 5.67 for 17.58 ± 4.45 hours) but not significant (P = 0.152). The mean duration of hospitalization in the intervention group was significantly lower than the control group (1.42 ± 0.50 days versus 1.70 ± 0.05 days and P = 0.006). Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy, early nutrition has a significant effect on reducing hospital admission of these patients without any adverse effects such as nausea and vomiting compared to traditional nutrition