
Surgical & Gastrointestinal Patients
Example cases for nutrition support
Tube feeding in surgical and gastrointestinal patients
Managing the risk of malnutrition is important when dealing with surgical patients and those with gastrointestinal diseases. Perioperative nutrition should be considered to maintain a good nutritional status – not least to be able to avoid postoperative complications but also to trigger positive effects on the general well-being of the patient.1
Malnutrition plays a decisive role as an independent risk factor regarding postoperative complications. Gastrointestinal diseases, like Crohn’s disease, also present nutritional
risk and inversely nutrition can play a major role coping with such diseases. Enteral nutrition can help to maintain and improve the nutritional status, which in addition has positive effects on the patients’ quality of life.2,3
The following four example cases illustrate how different patients undergoing surgery and/or treatment for gastrointestinal diseases may benefit from tube feeding.
- Short-term supplemental feeding following emergency bowel surgery
- Gastrostomy tube feeding in cystic fibrosis following lung transplantation
- Cardiac surgery and enteral tube feeding
- Exclusive enteral nutrition in Crohn’s disease