Due to a report in the February issue of the Archives of Surgery, chewing gum after open sigmoid colectomy may stimulate bowel motility and, as a result, shorten the stay at hospital by about 2 days.
The authors note that postoperative ileus can lengthen the hospital stay and is connected with various complications. Its cost is estimated at $750 million each year in the USA. Previous reports have found that early feeding after colon resection can stimulate bowel function and fasten hospital discharge. However, many patients cannot tolerate such feeding, so there is an urgent need for other methods that can restore motility.
According to a recent study, chewing gum can reduce ileus in patients who had laparoscopic colectomy. In the present randomized study, a group of experts with Dr. Kenneth Waxman, from The Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California, checked if the same held true in 34 patients who had elective open colectomy.
All the patients had sigmoid colectomy, including 27 for recurrent diverticulitis and 7 for cancer. People in the intervention group chewed sugarfree gum three times a day for 1 hour, beginning in the morning on postoperative day 1.
The first passage of flatus was recorded, on average, at postoperative hour 65.4 in the gum-chewing group, considerably early than postoperative hour 80.2 in the control group. Likewise, gum chewing seemed to provoke quicker return of bowel movements: postoperative hour 63.2 vs. 89.4.
The report shows that no considerable difference in the first feelings of hunger were noticed between the groups.
The average stay in hospital in the gum-chewing group lasted 4.3 days. The stay in the control group lasted 6.8 days (p = 0.01).
It is presumed by the scientists that chewing gum stimulates bowel motility by direct impact on the cephalic-vagal system. The experts add that measuring various gut hormones in patients who chew gum after operation may help explain the mechanisms further.
The researchers state that it is possible that gum with sugar or with different flavors and textures may be more beneficial at restoring motility than the sugarfree gum used in the present research.
