title: Does chewing gum improve recovery after an abdominal surgery?--First update.
abstract: This Living FRISBEE (Living FRIendly Summary of the Body of Evidence using Epistemonikos) is an update of the summary published in November 2014, based on four new systematic reviews published since then. Postoperative ileus is common condition that delays recovery after an abdominal surgery. Early use of sham feeding with chewing gum stimulates peristalsis and would allow an earlier nutrition. Searching in Epistemonikos database, which is maintained by screening 30 databases, we identified 18 systematic reviews including 81 randomized trials. We combined the evidence using meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings following the GRADE approach. We concluded that chewing gum probably reduces the length of hospital stay after an abdominal surgery.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Salud Basada en Evidencia, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Departamento de Medicina Interna, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; GRADE working group; The Cochrane Collaboration; Proyecto Epistemonikos. Address: Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Lira 63, Santiago Centro, Chile. Email: radagabriel@epistemonikos.org.
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rada
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Medicina Interna, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Proyecto Epistemonikos.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Viñuela
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000601:surgery; D002638:Chewing Gum; D006801:Humans; D045823:Ileus / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007902:Length of Stay; D010528:Peristalsis / Q000502:physiology; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D020127:Recovery of Function
chemical_list: D002638:Chewing Gum