Home enteral nutrition's effects on nutritional status and quality of life after esophagectomy

We aimed to characterize the effect of home enteral nutrition (HEN) on the nutritional status and the quality of life (QOL) of esophageal cancer patients who underwent Ivor Lewis esophagectomy for cancer.

Sixty patients with esophageal cancer were assigned to receive either HEN (n=30) or standard care only (n=30) from 1 week to 24 weeks following surgery. Nutritional status was evaluated using The Mini Nutritional Assessment at 1 week preoperatively and at 12 and 24 weeks postoperatively. QOL-related parameters were analyzed in all patients using the QOL-core 30 questionnaire and the supplemental QOL-esophageal module 18 questionnaire for patients with esophageal cancer from 1-24 weeks after surgery.

At 12 weeks after surgery, the incidence of malnutrition or latent malnutrition in the HEN group was lower than that in the control group despite the absence of a significant difference between the two groups before surgery. Compared to the control group, the HEN group achieved higher Global QOL scores, and most of their functional index scores were better. Most of the symptomatic index scores were more reduced at 4 weeks and 12 weeks postoperatively in the HEN group. However, at 24 weeks after surgery, the incidence of malnutrition or latent malnutrition and most of the QOL indexes did not differ significantly between the two groups.

HEN can reduce the incidence of malnutrition or latent malnutrition and help restore the QOL in the patients with esophageal cancer in the early period (24 weeks) after surgery.