The effects of perioperative oral enteral support with glutamine-added elemental formulas in patients with gastrointestinal cancers. A prospective, randomized, clinical study

Abstract

In this clinical, prospective and randomized study, the effects of oral nutritional support in the preoperative and postoperative period of 32 patients with gastrointestinal (GI) system cancer in respect of anthropometric and plasma protein level measures were studied at the 4th Surgical Department of the Ankara Numune Research and Education Hospital. In addition to hospital diet, 33.0% of the daily energy requirements was covered with polymeric enteral formulas (Ensure®) in the control group (n = 16), and with glutamine enriched elemental formulas (Alitraq®) in the study group (n = 16). Patients had these regimens 7 days in the preoperative period and 10 days in the postoperative period. The effects of additional enteral feeding support on anthropometric and plasma protein levels in the preoperative (days 1 and 7) and postoperative (days 1 and 10) periods were assessed. In both groups, no differences were observed among the anthropometric assessments, except for the “Nutritional Risk Index”. Total protein, albumin, transferrin, prealbumin, NRI, and nutritional prognostic index were affirmatively affected by both enteral formulas. However, the increments of these parameters were higher and more significant in the study group. Energy, protein, carbohydrate and lipid consumption of the patients were managed as the referred amounts. Pre- and post-operative nutritional support with glutamine enriched enteral formulas had beneficial effects on the patients with GI cancers.