Effects of early oral feeding on postoperative recovery of patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery: a Meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effects of early oral feeding on postoperative recovery of patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. Methods CNKI, China Biology Medicine database (CBM) , PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases were screened. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and their references from 2006 to 2016 were recruited using Meta-analysis. RevMan 5.3 software was used for data processing. Results A total of 11 RCTs containing 2 188 patients were included in the study. In patients with early oral feeding compared to patients with traditional fasting, there were statistically significant differences in first time of flatus[MD=-0.90 d, 95%CI (-1.12, -0.67) , P 0.05], abdominal distension[RR=1.29, 95%CI (0.70, 2.36) , P>0.05], the total incidence rate of postoperative complications[RR=0.82, 95%CI (0.59, 1.15) , P>0.05]and non-infective complications[RR=0.78, 95%CI (0.49, 1.25) , P>0.05]. Conclusions Early oral feeding is beneficial to the recovery of gastrointestinal function in patients with digestive system diseases, and significantly reduces the infective complications. Key words: Fasting; Gastrointestinal tract; Early oral feeding; Post operation; Meta-analysis