[Usefulness of postoperative support by enteral nutrition of patients with epidermoid carcinoma of the larynx].

RATIONALE

At the present time, artificial nutrition has made great strides and enteral nutrition has become the first choice delivery method. The purpose of our paper is to analyze the usefulness of this type of nutrition in the post-operative care of patients with larynx tumours.

METHODS

A total of 38 patients were studied, with an average age of 63.2 +/- 10.2 years. On average, in the post-operative period until oral nutrition was restored enteral nutrition lasted for 10.6 +/- 4.9 days. A biochemical and anthropometric assessment of the nutritional condition was effected at the time of admission and 7-10 days into the nutritional treatment.

RESULTS

During the post-operative period, no anthropometric changes were detected; the analytical variation, however, showed an improvement on the first review of pre-albumen (12.5 +/- 5.1 mg/dl versus 18.7 +/- 7.9 mg/dl; p < 0.05) and transferrin (132.1 +/- 35 mg/dl versus 159.7 +/- 38 mg/dl; p < 0.05). The nutritional feed using continuous perfusion was gradually increased from the first 24 hours of post-operative care until the pre-established theoretical requirements of the patients were met using polymeric formulas supplemented by soluble and insoluble fibre, presenting very few secondary effects: 13% of diarrhoeas and no cases of aspiration. All of the patients tolerated an oral diet when discharged. The average direct cost (nutrilinea, nasogastric tube and nutrition formulas) for enteral nutrition was 4,723 +/- 1,600 pesetas per day.

CONCLUSION

Enteral nutrition is effective in the post-operative care of patients with tumour of the larynx, improving their nutritional biochemistry parameters and allowing easy transition to oral nutrition, with presentation of few side effects and all for low cost.