Management of postoperative enterocutaneous fistulas: the roles of parenteral nutrition and surgery.

A series of 75 patients with 87 postoperative enterocutaneous fistulas (PEF) is reported. All received parenteral nutrition after the diagnosis of PEF was made. There were 16 deaths (21.3 per cent) and 62 fistulas (71.2 per cent) closed spontaneously. A classification of PEF is proposed according to the results obtained. The therapeutic approach cannot be uniform in all types of PEF. We feel that parenteral nutrition has substantially improved the prognosis of fistulous patients by increasing the rate of spontaneous closure and improving the nutritional status of patients needing repeated operations. Comparison between series of patients to establish the usefulness of parenteral nutrition is bound to yield inconclusive data due to marked differences in patient populations. We suggest that proper information be obtained by studying series of homogeneous patients, namely those who develop oesophageal, gastric or intestinal fistulas after surgery.