Effect of Home Enteral Nutritional Support Compared With Normal Oral Diet in Postoperative Subjects With Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Resection: A Meta-Analysis

• Published in: Frontiers in surgery Vol. 9; p. 844475
• Main Authors: Liu, Fang, Pan, Xuling, Zhao, SuQing, Ren, RuiJun, Chang, GuiXia, Mao, Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 18.02.2022
• Subjects: esophageal cancer; feeding related complications; hematological parameters; home enteral nutrition; oral diet; Surgery; surgical removal; anthropometric measurements; esophageal cancer; feeding related complications; home enteral nutrition; hematological parameters; surgical removal; oral diet
• ISSN: 2296-875X; 2296-875X
• DOI: 10.3389/fsurg.2022.844475

We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the influence of a home enteral nutritional support compared with a normal oral diet in postoperative subjects with upper gastrointestinal cancer resection. A systematic literature search up to December 2021 was done and 23 studies included 3,010 subjects with upper gastrointestinal cancer resection at the start of the study; 1,556 of them were given home enteral nutritional support and 1,454 were normal oral diet. We calculated the odds ratio (OR) and mean difference (MD) with 95% CIs to evaluate the influence of home enteral nutritional support compared with a normal oral diet in postoperative subjects with upper gastrointestinal cancer resection by the dichotomous or continuous methods with a random or fixed-influence model. Home enteral nutritional support had significantly higher quality of life (MD, 2.08; 95% CI, 1.50-2.67, < 0.001), better body weight change (MD, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.31-2.43, < 0.001), higher albumin (MD, 1.27; 95% CI, 0.72-1.82, < 0.001), and higher pre-albumin (MD, 30.79; 95% CI, 7.29-54.29, = 0.01) compared to the normal oral diet in subjects with upper gastrointestinal cancer resection. However, home enteral nutritional support had no significant impact on the hemoglobin (MD, 4.64; 95% CI, -4.17 to 13.46, = 0.30), and complications (OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.76-1.40, = 0.83) compared to the normal oral diet in subjects with upper gastrointestinal cancer resection. Home enteral nutritional support had a significantly higher quality of life, better body weight change, higher albumin, and higher pre-albumin, and had no significant impact on the hemoglobin and complications compared to the normal oral diet in subjects with upper gastrointestinal cancer resection. Further studies are required.