Presence and Persistence of Nutrition-Presence and Persistence of Nutrition-Related Symptoms During

Presence and Persistence of Nutrition-Related Symptoms During the First Year Following Esophagectomy with Gastric Tube Reconstruction in Clinically Disease-Free Patients

"Our primary aim was to evaluate the nutrition-related symptoms that patients experienced. In other studies, these nutritional aspects were secondary and were therefore not described or studied in detail. In some studies, retrospective data were used, or data were collected through postal surveys, without patient contact."

"To our knowledge, our study is the first that has demonstrated the continuing need for nutritional support during a long postoperative period, when early satiety inhibits the consumption of sufficient quantities of food."

"To our knowledge, this is the first study describing nutrition-related symptoms of patients, adjustments, and body weight at multiple, specific time points during a one-year follow-up period after esophagectomy.

"In conclusion, the present study shows that in the first year after an esophagectomy with gastric tube reconstruction, the majority of patients struggle with persistent nutrition-related symptoms, nutrition-related adjustments in terms of meal size, meal frequency, nutrition-related social aspects, and altered stool frequency. They must also struggle to achieve a sustained body weight. Therefore, at specific postoperative time points, both surgeon and dietitian should inform the patient about the occurrence of postoperative nutrition-related symptoms, which could be persistent. In addition, they should also systematically assess the specific symptoms of each patient, and evaluate the nutritional status of that patient in terms of body weight, to improve the patient’s quality of life and to prevent malnutrition."

#esophagectomy #nutrition