Early enteral nutrition and total parenteral nutrition on the nutritional status and blood glucose in patients with gastric cancer complicated with diabetes mellitus after radical gastrectomy

Effects of early enteral nutrition (EEN) or total parenteral nutrition (TPN) support on nutritional status and blood glucose in patients with gastric cancer complicated with diabetes mellitus after radical gastrectomy were investigated. One hundred and twenty-nine patients with gastric cancer complicated with diabetes mellitus type 2 admitted to the First People's Hospital of Jinan (Jinan, China), from June 2012 to June 2016 were selected into the study. According to different nutrition support pathways, these patients were randomly divided into the EEN group and the TPN group. The improvement of nutritional indexes, postoperative complications, gastrointestinal function recovery and perioperative blood glucose fluctuation were compared between the two groups. On the 4th day after operation, the improvement levels of total bilirubin (TBL), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), total protein (TP), prealbumin (PAB), hemoglobin (HGB) and weight (Wt) in the EEN group were significantly higher than those in the conventional group (P<0.05). There were no significant differences between the two groups on the 8th day after operation (P>0.05). No patients had complications in the EEN group, while a total of 29 patients in the TPN group suffered adverse reactions, indicating that the incidence rate of complications in the EEN group was significantly lower than that in the TPN group (P<0.05). The postoperative evacuation time was earlier, hospitalization time was shorter and cost of postoperative hospitalization was less in the EEN group than those in the TPN group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). The blood glucose fluctuation values at fasting and 2 h after a meal in the TPN group were higher than those in the EEN group within 8 days after operation, and the differences were statistically significant (χ(2)=13.219, P=0.002; χ(2)=20.527, P<0.001). EEN support provides nutrition for patients with gastric cancer complicated with diabetes mellitus after radical gastrectomy, which is worthy of clinical promotion as it maintains good nutritional status, produces few postoperative complications and keeps the blood glucose level stable, by which the postoperative evacuation time is early, the hospitalization time is short and the cost is low.