CLINICAL EVALUATION OF ENTERAL FEEDING

Abstract

From January 1977 through December 1982, 297 patients underwent enteral feeding. Among them, postoperative gastric cancer patients accounted for 66%. The feeding was started on the fourth or fifth postoperative day and stopped two to three weeks later in patients whose postoperative courses were uneventful. Complications of the feeding appeared in about 70% of the patients, in whom some nutritional parameters, the serum levels of total protein and albumin deteriorated slightly. Diarrhea and/or soft or muddy stools were the most common complication, octarring in 61.4% of the subjects. Regulation of the feeding speed was thought to be one of the most important measures to avoid this abnormal bowel movement. Since renal failure was present in 2.6% of the patients as a preoperative coexistent disease, a low-residue diet was specially devised, and its clinical usefulness was confirmed in patients with renal failure.