Surgery
Chewing gum could speed up bowel surgery recovery
By IANS
Feb 22, 2006, 15:40

If you have had bowel surgery, get serious about chewing gum. For, it may speed up recovery and help shorten hospital stay, says a study by US researchers.

Any type of abdominal surgery can cause a marked decrease or stoppage of intestinal function, a condition known as ileus. This can cause pain, vomiting and abdominal distension and keep patients in hospital longer, reported online edition of BBC News.

There is also an increased risk of infection and breathing problems. Some patients who undergo bowel surgery are known not to be able to tolerate food or even water in the immediate aftermath of their operation.

The researchers at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, California, studied 34 patients who underwent surgery to remove a portion of the large intestine - a procedure known as sigmoid colon resection - and found that getting people to chew gum may be helpful.

Half of the study participants chewed sugarless gum three times a day following their surgery, the rest did not. The gum-chewing group left the hospital after an average of 4.3 days compared with 6.8 days for the control group.

Patients who chewed gum also passed gas sooner, and had their first bowel movement earlier than those who did not.

"There is some scientific basis for chewing stimulating gut function and early return of gut function is an important goal of post operative care," said Neil Mortensen, an expert adviser to Bowel Cancer UK.

"This is a small study which needs to be confirmed in bigger trials," he said.

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