[Enteral nutrition in maxillofacial surgery patients (1989-1995)]

One of the clearest indications for enteral nutrition is made up by patients who underwent treatment for orofacial pathology. In this way, we have reviewed retrospectively, 321 clinical histories of patients who underwent treatment (orofacial surgery), dividing these according to the pathology; neoplasia or non-neoplasia (173/148), with enteral nutrition 24 hours after the intervention. Data are collected with regard to the tolerance (vomiting, diarrhea), time needed to reach 1.500 kcal/day, need of parenteral nutritional support, transferrin, prealbumin, and albumin quantification at the start of the nutritional therapy, as well as the total duration there of. Globally, the good enteric tolerance of both groups of patients is noted, despite the fact that the oncological group showed a greater degree of protein malnutrition (statistically significant). As for the total duration of the nutrition, this is greater in the neoplasias, probably due to a more aggressive surgery. The results obtained permit modification of the basic enteral nutrition protocol (reduction of the time used to reach the maximum volume), as well as stressing the preoperative and postoperative regulated nutritional evaluation.