Effects of home enteral nutrition for post-operative patients of esophageal cancer

Abstract

Objective To explore the method and efficacy of home enteral nutrition for patients undergoing radical resection of esophagus cancer. Methods A total of 85 patients who underwent radical surgery for esophageal cancer and jejunum fistula from January 2016 to March 2017 were enrolled and were divided into observation group (n=44) and control group (n=41) by random number table method. Patients of control group took normal family diet orally after nutrition assessment and jejunum fistula clipped while patients of observation group received extra special immune enteral nutrition preparations for tumor through fistula of jejunostomy under the guidance of a nutrition support team. After one month treatment, plasma nutrition indicators and European Screening for Nutrition Risk (NRS 2002) assessment were performed to analyze the difference of two groups to compare the nutrition status. Results All indicators did not differ when discharged for two groups (P>0.05) . After one month intervation, level of hemoglobin, total serum protein, albumin, prealbumin and transferrin of the observation group were statistically higher than those of control group [ (12.90±1.33) vs. (10.83±1.35) g/dl, (72.22±4.83) vs. (63.90±5.44) g/L, (41.63±2.67) vs. (36.98±3.69) g/L, (217.70±56.72) vs. (166.27±39.97) mg/L, (2.41±0.38) vs. (1.76±0.47) g/L; P<0.01]. Percentage of patients with high nutritional risk (NRS 2002 ≥3) in the observation group was lower than that of the control group (45.5% vs. 68.3%; P<0.05) . Conclusions Nutritional support at home after discharge could improve the nutritional status and reduce the risk of malnutrition for patients who underwent radical surgery for esophageal cancer. Key words: Esophageal neoplasms; Continued nursing; Home enteral nutrition; Nutritional risk