Enteral refeeding syndrome after long-term total parenteral nutrition.
BACKGROUND
Early enteral feeding (EF) may result in fever, elevated white blood cell count, increased serum levels of liver enzymes, and diarrhea. We name the complications "enteral refeeding syndrome", as a subtype of refeeding syndrome, because they are likely to result from long-term lack of lumen nutrition. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of enteral refeeding syndrome after long-term total parenteral nutrition (TPN), and the solution for the disease.


METHODS
We collected the clinical data of 100 patients with gastrointestinal fistula, who were cured from Apirl 2001 to July 2002. Their fasting time, daily stool frequency, body temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, levels of transaminases, alkaline phosphatase (AKP), and gamma-glutamylcyclotransferase (gamma-GT), white blood cell count, and systemic inflammatory reaction syndrome (SIRS) score were recorded before and 1, 3, 5, 10, and 15 days after EF. Student's t test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the data.


RESULTS
Of the 100 patients, 56 were cured after selective resection of intestinal fistula, 15 were cured by emergency operation, and 29 recovered spontaneously. The levels of AKP and gamma-GT increased significantly on the 3rd day after EF [On the 3rd day after EF, (243.0 +/- 121.6) U/L and (177.2 +/- 109.9) U/L vs. before EF (181.5 +/- 127.5) U/L and (118.4 +/- 94.2) U/L, P < 0.05], and decreased gradually afterwards. The SIRS scores on the 1st day (1.05 +/- 1.08) and 3rd day (0.96 +/- 1.11) after EF were significantly higher than that before EF (0.72 +/- 0.84), then decreased to 0.83 +/- 0.91, 0.49 +/- 0.73 and 0.32 +/- 0.60 on the 5th, 10th and 15th days after EF. The number of patients with diarrhea at 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 days post-EF were 31, 26, 12, 13, and 7, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The longer the TPN lasts, the more severe the enteral refeeding syndrome becomes. Continuous EF is effective for the syndrome. Early enteral nutrition is useful in preventing it.
Ren
Jian-an
JA
Department of Surgery, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210002, China. jan@medmail.com.cn
Mao
Yao
Y
Wang
Ge-fei
GF
Wang
Xing-bo
XB
Fan
Chao-gang
CG
Wang
Zhi-ming
ZM
Li
Jie-shou
JS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology*; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007565:Jaundice / Q000209:etiology*; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010289:Parenteral Nutrition, Total / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013577:Syndrome; D018746:Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome / Q000209:etiology*; D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase / Q000097:blood
D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase