The utility of nasogastric decompression after intestinal surgery in children

Abstract

Evaluation of: Davila-Perez R, Bracho-Blanchet E, Tovilla-Mercado JM et al.: Unnecessary gastric decompression in distal elective bowel anastomoses in children: a randomized study. World J. Surg. 34(5), 947–953 (2010). Although the use of nasogastric decompression after intestinal surgery has been a common practice for decades, there has not been a prospective randomized trial that supports its purported benefits in children. Davila-Perez and colleagues undertook a scientific approach to the use of nasogastric decompression in children undergoing intestinal anastomoses to determine if clinical benefits could be identified. They randomized 60 pediatric patients undergoing intestinal anastomoses to either undergo nasogastric decompression for 5 days or to not have gastric decompression during the postoperative period. The study was designed as an equivalence study, with a goal to demonstrate that there was equivalence between the treatment arms. The results, with the use of sophisticated statistics, supported the authors conclusions that there is no difference in the postoperative course of pediatric patients that undergo gastric decompression when compared with those not undergoing gastric decompression, and that routine use of gastric decompression should be eliminated.