Editing Peri-operative nutrition (section)

== Post-operative nutrition ==

* Tube feeding within 24 hours in patients in whom early oral nutrition can't be started, and oral intake will be <50% for more than 7 days
** Especially:
*** Head and neck or GIT surgery for cancer
*** Severe trauma including brain injury
*** Obvious malnutrition at time of surgery
** Start at 20mL/hour and increase carefully due to limited intestinal tolerance. Can take up to 7 days to reach goal rate.
** If persistently high aspirates are found (>250mL every four hours), can either reduce feed rate or trial prokinetics (metoclopramide/erythromycin/domperidone)
** If still getting high aspirates after a good trial (1-2 days), may need to consider post-pyloric or parenteral feeding
* Refer to dieticians for potential ongoing enteral support on discharge for most patients who received nutritional support peri-operatively

[[Category:Nutrition]]