2 PHASE RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED CLINICAL-TRIAL OF POSTOPERATIVE ORAL DIETARY-SUPPLEMENTS IN SURGICAL PATIENTS

Background-Previous work has shown that the administration of oral die tary supplements to patients who have undergone gastrointestinal surge ry results in clinically significant short term benefits. Aims-This st udy aimed firstly to re-evaluate these short term effects, and secondl y to establish whether there are any long term benefits. Subjects-One hundred patients admitted for elective moderate or major gastrointesti nal surgery. Methods-In the inpatient phase, patients were randomised to receive a normal ward diet postoperatively, or the same diet supple mented with an oral dietary supplement. In the outpatient phase, patie nts were further randomised to receive their home diet, or their home diet suppplemented with the oral dietary supplement for four months. R esults-During the inpatient phase, patients treated with oral suppleme nts had a significantly improved nutritional intake and lost less weig ht (2 . 2, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0 . 9 kg) compared with co ntrol patients (4 . 2 (0 . 78) kg, p<0 . 001). Supplemented patients m aintained their hand grip strength whereas control patients showed a s ignificant reduction in grip strength (p<0 . 01). Subjective levels of fatigue increased significantly above pre-operative levels in control patients (p<0 . 01) but not in the supplemented group. Twelve patient s in the control group developed complications compared with four in t he supplemented group (p<0 . 05). In the outpatient phase, supplemente d patients had improved nutrient intakes but there were no significant differences in indices of nutritional status or wellbeing between the groups. Conclusions-The prescription of oral dietary supplements to p atients who have undergone gastrointestinal surgery results in clinica lly significant benefits. These benefits, however, are restricted to t he inpatient phase.