Perioperative Enteral Nutrition Improves Postoperative Recovery for Patients with Primary Liver Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract

Objective

The role of perioperative protein-enriched enteral nutrition for patients with primary liver cancer is unclear. We investigated the efficacy of perioperative protein-enriched enteral nutrition for patients with primary liver cancer followed hepatectomy.

Methods

Patients with primary liver cancer that underwent hepatectomy between January 2016 and 2018 were enrolled. Patients in the treatment group was given enteral nutrition (TP-MCT) in addition to the regular diet. The primary outcome measures were duration of hospital stay and length of postoperative hospital stay. Secondary outcome measures included time to first flatus and time to first defecation.

Results

There was a significant reduction of time to first flatus and time to first defecation in the treatment group, when compared with the control group (time to first flatus: P = 0.001, time to first defecation: P < 0.001).

Conclusions

It is found that addition of protein-enriched enteral nutrition (TP-MCT) improved postoperative recovery for patients with primary liver cancer following hepatectomy, with a significant reduction in time to first flatus and time to first defecation.

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Xiaoyuan Chen, Dr. Peng Song and Dr. Shen Gu for collecting data for this clinical trial. We also thank Prof. Xiaojie Bian for nutritional assessment for each participant.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author Contributions

Xiaopeng Yan and Yudong Qiu equally contributed to the conception and design of the research; Lianxin Liu contributed to the design of the research; Xiaopeng Yan contributed to the acquisition and analysis of the data; Yamin Zhang and Tianqiang Song contributed to the interpretation of the data; and Yingjian Liang, Zirong Liu, Xu Bao and Liang Mao drafted the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Key Medical Subjects of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. ZDRCA2016057).