Effect of postoperative immune-enhanced enteral nutrition in patients with total gastrectomy

AIM: To study the effect of postoperative immune-enhanced enteral nutrition support on the nutritional status, immune function and inflammatory responses in patients with total gastrectomy. MEHTODS: Fifty-two gastric cancer patients with total gastrectomy were randomly divided into 2 groups: Enteral nutrition group (EN group, n=26) and immune-enhanced enteral nutrition group (experiment group, n=26). Calorie and nitrogen of the same quantity were provided for both groups from the first day after surgery. The patients in EN group received conventional enteral nutrition support with Nutrison and the patients in experiment group received immune-enhanced enteral nutrition support with Stresson for 7 d, respectively. The levels of total protein, albumin, prealbumin, IgG, IgA, IgM, CD3, CD4, CD8, CD4/CD8, IL-2 and TNF-α were measured preoperatively and on day 1 and 8 after operation. RESULTS: The total protein, albumin and prealbumin had no difference between the two groups. On the 8th day after operation, the levels of IgG, IgA, IgM, CD3, CD4 and CD4/CD8 were significantly higher in experiment group than those in EN group (P0.05), while TNF-α was significantly lower in experiment group than that in EN group (P 0.05). CONCLUSION: Early postoperative immune-enhanced enteral nutrition support can improve the immune function of gastric cancer patients with total gastrectomy and alleviate inflammatory responses.