Early postoperative oral feeding shortens first time of bowel evacuation and prevents long term hospital stay in patients undergoing elective small intestine anastomosis

Background We compared the outcome of early oral feeding (EOF) compared to traditional oral feeding (TOF) in patients undergoing elective small intestine anastomosis. Materials and Methods This randomized single-blinded controlled trial was performed on 108 patients who underwent small intestine anastomosis. The patients were randomly assigned to schedule EOF (with starting oral feeding on the first day after surgery and complete return of the Gag reflex) or TOF (with delaying oral feeding till the first passage of flatus and bowel movement). We compared the overall prevalence of postoperative complication, length of hospital stays and outcome of surgery in two groups. Results The time to first passage of stool was shorter in EOF group than in TOF group (3.2 ± 0.59 days versus 3.6 ± 0.66 days (p = 0.006). The mean length of hospital stay in EOF group was also shorter than in TOF group (3.8 ± 1.06 days versus 6.3 ± 1.0 days, p = 0.001). The length of hospital stays shorter than 4 days was found in 75.9% of patients in EOF group and 11.1% of those patients in TOF group (p < 0.001). Conclusion The use of EOF in patients undergoing small intestine anastomosis can shorten time to first passage of stool as well as reduce the length of hospital stay.