Novel nutrition strategies to enhance recovery after surgery

Surgery and traumatic injury set off a cascade of metabolic changes that are becoming better understood. Recently, strategies and protocols have been developed for optimizing outcomes, and this has yielded beneficial results. This brief review evaluates three specific nutrition or metabolic interventions in the postoperative setting that attempt to optimize outcomes. We limited this to three subspecialty areas including oncologic surgery, orthopedic surgery, and cardiac surgery. These agents included fish oils, factors to prevent dysbiosis, and resistance exercise and its role in enhancing protein update. Where these novel agents fit into the basic tenets of postoperative nutrition interventions does not change the narrative: deliver graduated early enteral feeding to attenuate the metabolic response to surgical stress, maintain the gastrointestinal mucosal barrier, use immune/metabolic modulation to enhance immune response while attenuating excessive inflammation, and support the microbiome.