Clinical observation of early enteral nutrition in prevention of pulmonary infections after esophageal cancer surgery

OBJECTIVE To investigate clinical preventive effects of early enteral nutrition on lung infections after esophageal cancer surgery so as to guide the clinical treatment.METHODS Totally 50children with surgical resection of esophageal cancer were chosen from the hospital in the period from May 2011to May 2012and were randomly divided into two groups including the parenteral nutrition group(25children)with parenteral nutrition support and the enteral nutrition group(25children)with enteral nutrition support by nose intestinal infusion,then the incidence of pulmonary infections and the levels of serum albumin,hemoglobin,alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase before and after the treatment,exhaust time after surgery,and weight loss were compared between the two groups.RESULTS The incidence of pulmonary infections of the enteral nutrition group was 32.0%,significantly higher than 12.0%of the parenteral nutrition group,the difference was significant(P 0.05);the difference in the level of serum albumin,alanine aminotransferase or aspartate aminotransferase between the enteral nutrition group and the parenteral nutrition group was not significant.After the treatment,the levels of the serum albumin(35.5±6.1)g/L,hemoglobin(90.2±10.4)g/L,alanine aminotransferase(63.7 ±8.8)U/L,and aspartate aminotransferase(73.3±13.7)U/L of the enteral nutrition group were significantly higher than the levels of the serum albumin(39.7±7.5)g/L,hemoglobin(99.6±13.8)g/L,alanine aminotransferase(37.1±6.2)U/L and aspartate aminotransferase(36.4±7.4)U/L of the parenteral nutrition group,the difference between the two groups was significant(P0.05).The postoperative exhaust time of the enteral nutrition group was(67.2±5.0)h,significantly less than(90.8±7.5)h of the parenteral nutrition group,while the weight loss of the enteral nutrition group was(1.9±0.5)kg,significantly less than(2.6±1.0) kg of the parenteral nutrition group,the difference was significant(P0.05).CONCLUSION The early enteral nutrition can efficiently improve the nutrition level of the patients after esophageal cancer surgery and lower the risk of pulmonary infections,it is worthy of the clinical application.