title: [Monitoring of postoperative enteral feeding using the H2 breath test].
abstract: A group of 24 patients which underwent extensive abdominal surgery (gastrectomy and esophagus resection) were fed with a chemically defined diet by way of a needle catheter jejunostomy starting on day five postoperatively. On the fourth postoperative day the jejunocaecal transit time was measured by hydrogen breath test with a median of 97.5 min. Under enteral nutrition, hydrogen exhalation showed a significant rise in all patients. The 8 patients who developed diarrhea (33%) had significantly elevated hydrogen exhalation in relationship to the patients with no diarrhea. 6-12 h before diarrhea, patients had a significant increase in their hydrogen exhalation in correlation to the beginning of carbohydrate malabsorption. Therefore, the hydrogen breath test is a simple, non-invasive method to evaluate carbohydrate malabsorption and the risk of developing diarrhea under enteral nutrition.
authors.affiliation: Chirurgische Klinik, Ruhr-Universität, St. Josef-Hospital, Bochum.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kemen
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Homann
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: von Liebe
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zumtobel
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000601:surgery; D001944:Breath Tests; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005772:Gastrointestinal Transit; D006801:Humans; D006859:Hydrogen; D007582:Jejunostomy; D011182:Postoperative Care
chemical_list: D006859:Hydrogen
vernacular_title: Kontrolle der postoperativen enteralen Ernährung mit dem H2-Atemtest.