Effects of comprehensive nutrition support on immune function, wound healing, hospital stay, and mental health in gastrointestinal surgery.

Background: Postoperative patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery often encounter challenges such as low immune function, delayed wound healing owing to surgical trauma, and increased nutritional demands during recovery.
Aim: To assess the effect of comprehensive nutritional support program on immune function and wound healing in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery.
Methods: This retrospective comparative study included 60 patients who underwent gastrointestinal surgery, randomly assigned to either the experimental group ( n = 30) or the control group ( n = 30). The experimental group received comprehensive nutritional support, including a combination of enteral and parenteral nutrition, whereas the control group received only conventional comprehensive nutritional support. Evaluation indicators included immune function markers ( e.g. , white blood cell count, lymphocyte subsets), wound healing (wound infection rate, healing time), pain score [visual analog scale (VAS) score], and psychological status (anxiety score, depression score) 7 days post-surgery) and duration of stay.
Results: The immune function of patients in the experimental group was significantly better than that in the control group. The white blood cell count was 8.52 ± 1.19 × 10 ⁹ /L in the experimental group vs 6.74 ± 1.31 × 10 ⁹ /L ( P < 0.05). The proportion of CD4+ T cells was higher in the experimental group (40.09% ± 4.91%) than that in the control group (33.01% ± 5.08%) ( P < 0.05); the proportion of CD8+ T cells was lower (21.79% ± 3.38% vs 26.29% ± 3.09%; P < 0.05). The CD4+/CD8+ ratio was 1.91 ± 0.32 in the experimental group whereas 1.13 ± 0.23 in the control group ( P < 0.05). The wound infection rate of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group (10% vs 30%, P < 0.05), and the wound healing time was shorter (10.35 ± 2.42 days vs 14.42 ± 3.15 days, P < 0.05). The VAS score of the experimental group was 3.05 ± 1.04, and that of the control group was 5.11 ± 1.09 ( P < 0.05); the anxiety score (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale) was 8.88 ± 1.87, and that of the control group was 12.1 ± 3.27 ( P < 0.05); the depression score (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) was 7.37 ± 1.41, and that of the control group was 11.79 ± 2.77 ( P < 0.05). In addition, the hospitalization time of the experimental group was significantly shorter than that of the control group (16.16 ± 3.12 days vs 20.93 ± 4.84 days, P < 0.05).
Conclusion: A comprehensive nutritional support program significantly enhances immune function, promote wound healing, reduces pain, improves psychological status, and shortens hospitalization stays in patients recovering from gastrointestinal surgery.
Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
(©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)