Patient's appetite is a good indicator for postoperative feeding: a proposal for individualized postoperative feeding after surgery for colon cancer.
BACKGROUND
In modern postoperative management, early and enforced feeding has been implemented. The aim of this study is to determine the feasibility of individualized feeding according to the patient's appetite.


METHODS
Patients who underwent elective surgery for colon cancer from January 2007 to December 2008 were studied. Liquid intake was allowed on the day of operation and solid normal meal (1800 Kcal) was served according to the recovery of appetite.


RESULTS
Two hundred and nine patients were included. Open and laparoscopic surgeries were performed in 104 and 105 patients, respectively. Solid meal was started by the second postoperative day in 81.3% of patients. Intravenous drip infusion was completed within 1 day of the start of the solid meal in 86.6% of the patients and 182 out of 209 patients (87.1%) did not require drip infusion by the third postoperative day. There were no mortalities and readmission rate was 1.0% (2/209).


CONCLUSIONS
The introduction of feeding according to the recovery of appetite was safe and feasible with no delay in establishing oral intake.
Kawamura
Yutaka J
YJ
Department of Surgery, Saitama Medical Center, Jichi Medical Univeristy, Saitama, Saitama 3308503, Japan. kawamura@omiya.jichi.ac.jp
Kuwahara
Yuichi
Y
Mizokami
Ken
K
Sasaki
Junichi
J
Tan
Kok-Yang
KY
Tsujinaka
Shingo
S
Maeda
Takafumi
T
Konishi
Fumio
F
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001066:Appetite; D003082:Colectomy / Q000009:adverse effects; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D019992:Databases as Topic; D004435:Eating; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures; D004750:Enteral Nutrition; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010288:Parenteral Nutrition; D011182:Postoperative Care; D057285:Precision Medicine; D020127:Recovery of Function; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome