[Enteral nutrition in seriously ill patients with digestive tract surgery]

The results of an enteral nutritional pattern used in 40 seriously ill patients who underwent gastrointestinal tract surgery, are described. The most frequently used route of administration (97.5% of the cases) was a jejunal catheter. We review the types of formula used, the method and time of perfusion, and the association with parenteral nutrition. The mean time of perfusion was 8.6 (5) days and the morbidity rate due to enteral nutrition was 20%. In all cases the complications were minor (externalization of the catheter in 2 cases, proximal reflux of the formula in 1 patient, a catheter break, which was eliminated through the stool without any consequences, in 1 case, diarrhoea in 2 patients, and catheter obstruction in 2 cases). The nutritional results, evaluated by means of clinical chemistry (total proteins, albumin, prealbumin, and transferrin), showed a stabilization of the catabolic process in patients with a poor preoperative nutritional state under severe surgical stress. It can be concluded that enteral nutrition is a useful manner of postoperative feeding in seriously ill patients who undergo gastrointestinal surgery, and that it must often be added to parenteral nutrition to ensure an adequate caloric intake.