Abstract
The vast majority of patients with esophageal cancer undergoing surgery have suffered substantial weight loss. Undernutrition is an independent risk factor for the incidence of postoperative infectious complications, as well as increased mortality, length of hospital stay, and costs in patients undergoing curative surgery for esophageal cancer. Therefore, in these patients perioperative artificial nutrition should be considered almost routinely.
The main goals of perioperative nutritional support are to minimize negative protein balance with the purpose to maintain muscle, immune, and cognitive function and to enhance postoperative recovery.
Significant improvements in postoperative outcome have been reported by using preoperatively oral nutritional supplements enriched with specific immune-modulating substrates regardless of baseline nutritional status.
Current guidelines recommend postoperative early enteral feeding or a combination of enteral and supplementary parenteral feeding as the first choice. In fact, surgical patients fed enterally had an improved outcome compared with patients treated parenterally, and the nutrition-related sanitary costs are substantially reduced when the enteral route is used.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Italia
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Braga, M. (2012). Perioperative Nutrition. In: Bonavina, L. (eds) Innovation in Esophageal Surgery. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2469-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2469-4_14
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