Observation on clinical efficacy and tolerance of postoperative enteral nutrition support in patients with esophageal cancer

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of enteral nutrition support and the tolerance of patients with esophageal cancer after the surgery. Methods Total 95 patients with esophageal cancer were randomly divided into enteral nutrition group(54 cases) and parenteral nutrition group(41 cases).The enteral nutrition group received the enteral nutrition support after the operation,while the parenteral nutrition group received the total parenteral nutrition support after the surgery.The body weight and the levels of hemoglobin and serum albumin of both groups before and after the operations were compared,and the time to first passage of flatus and stool of the two groups were recorded,the intolerance and influencing factors in both groups were observed and analyzed. Results The postoperative body weight,levels of hemoglobin and serum albumin of the enteral nutrition group were higher than those of the parenteral nutrition group(t=1.778,1.696,1.823,P<0.05).After the surgery,the first time to first passage of flatus and stool of the enteral nutrition group were lower than those of the parenteral nutrition group(P<0.05).The enteral nutrition group was administrated with enteral nutrition solution at (2.4±0.6) d after the operations,and got the target dosage within (4.6±0.9)d.In the process of nutritional support,the intolerance rate of the enteral nutrition group was 31.5%(17/54),and of the parenteral nutrition group was 24.4%(10/41),the difference was not significant between the two groups(χ²=0.576,P>0.05).There were no significant differences in the intolerance among the patients with different sex,age,the amount of blood loss,the different time of getting the target dosage and the amount of the first input in the enteral nutrition group(P>0.05). Conclusion The postoperative enteral nutrition support can effectively improve the nutritional status of patients with esophageal cancer,and maintain a good tolerance.The therapy may be widely used in clinic.