title: Immediate postoperative refeeding in orthopedic surgery is safe.
abstract: The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate the morbidity of immediate postoperative refeeding after orthopedic surgery. We included all the 1077 patients who underwent orthopedic surgery between January and December 2003 at our military teaching hospital. General anesthesia was performed in 37% of the patients (n = 398), 24% (n = 259) had combined general and regional anesthesia, and 39% (n = 420) had isolated regional anesthesia (spinal anesthesia and/or peripheral regional anesthesia). After surgery, each patient was allowed free access to solid and liquid food immediately after discharge from the postanesthetic care unit. Although no systematic nausea and vomiting prophylaxis was performed, only 7% (n = 75) of the patients had postoperative nausea and vomiting during the first 48 h. Moreover, neither deglutition trouble nor aspiration syndrome was observed during that period. Our results suggest that immediate postoperative refeeding after orthopedic surgery is safe, does not increase postoperative nausea and vomiting, and probably increases the comfort of patients.
authors.affiliation: Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Edouard Herriot Hospital, 5 Place d'Arsonval, 69003 Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rimmelé
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Combourieu
authors.forename: Pierre-François
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Wey
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boselli
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Allaouchiche
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chassard
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Escarment
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009985:Orthopedics; D011182:Postoperative Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies