Impact of Early Enteral & Parenteral Nutrition on Post-operative Outcome After Abdominal Surgery

Introduction: Nutritional support is a vital therapy of most surgical patients. Early initiation via the enteral route has a significant effect on postoperative recovery. The prognostic role of CRP and albumin can be explained by their abilities to reflect inflammation in the acute phase in critical settings and assess the nutritional status of critically ill patients, respectively. This indicates the prognostic value of the CRP/ALB ratio in postoperative patients admitted to the ICU.

Aim of work: Determine the effect of early enteral & parenteral nutrition on ICU outcome & nutritional status in postoperative abdominal surgical patients and investigate the effect of enteral & parenteral nutrition on CRP/albumin ratio as an inflammatory marker & its correlation with SOFA score.

Methods: A prospective cohort non randomized study included 80 postoperative abdominal surgical patients at Critical Care Department, Cairo University over one year duration. Forty patients (50%) received enteral nutrition 6 hours after surgical procedures and 40 patients (50%) received parenteral nutrition 6 hours after surgical procedures. Nutritional status and inflammatory markers were screened. All patients were followed up during the ICU stay & up to 3 months. SOFA scoring was done every 48 hours.