Safety and Efficacy of Early Oral Feeding after Liver Transplantation with Roux-en-Y Choledochojejunostomy: A Single-Center Experience

BACKGROUND: Early oral feeding, as one of the most important components of multimodal strategies referred to as Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS), is now widely adopted for optimization of post-operative recovery of surgical patients. OBJECTIVE: To assess ERAS outcome in patients who underwent liver transplantation in our center. METHODS: In a prospective study, patients who underwent liver transplantation from April 2015 to June 2018 at Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, were enrolled in this study. Serum albumin, total iron-binding capacity (TIBC), and course of hospital stay were assessed. RESULTS: 39 (23 male) patients who underwent choledochojejunostomy with Roux-en-Y anastomosis for liver transplantation were enrolled. The mean±SD pre-operative serum albumin and TIBC levels of patients were 3.0±0.6 (range: 1.9–4.1) g/dL and 304±75 (range: 154.0–437.0) µg/dL, respectively. The mean±SD time between the end of operation and starting oral feeding was 11.6±1.8 (range: 9.0–15.0) hours. All patients tolerated early oral feeding with liquids followed by solid foods; no vomiting reported in patients. Overall, patient survival rates at one month and three months were 89.7% and 89.7%, respectively. In our study, no leak of anastomosis was reported. CONCLUSION: There was no major harm for ERAS after liver transplantation and it might be even helpful as in colorectal surgeries. As seen in our study, oral feeding was started as soon as possible after the end of operation in almost all patients and all of them tolerated early oral feeding. No one had vomiting or nausea.