Can chewing gum help people recover from bowel surgery?
Publication Date:19/08/2008
People who have surgery on their colon (bowel) recover more quickly if they are given gum to chew in the days after their operation, a study has found. But before doctors can recommend chewing gum as a routine part of care after colon surgery, a much bigger study is needed to confirm the results.
What do we know already?
Many thousands of people have surgery to remove a part of their colon (or bowel) every year in the UK. This type of operation is done for a number of reasons, such as to remove cancer of the colon or rectum, benign polyps (small non-cancerous growths) or problems caused by diverticulitis (small pouches that bulge outwards from the colon) and Crohn's disease.
Surgery to remove part of the colon is complicated and it can take a long time for the bowel to start working normally again. This can be very unpleasant, causing painful cramps, nausea and vomiting. Patients typically spend between two weeks and four weeks in hospital after this type of operation.
Doctors are keen to help patients recover from colon surgery more quickly.
Previous studies have looked at the effects of chewing gum on patients who have colon surgery. But the results have been mixed and the studies have all been small. For the present study, researchers combined the results from five good quality studies to look at whether chewing gum offers patients any benefits.
What does the new study say?
The study found that patients who chewed gum showed signs that their bowels were returning to normal sooner than patients who didn't chew gum. They passed wind an average of two-thirds of a day sooner and had a bowel movement a day earlier.
In the studies patients were asked to chew gum three times a day, for between 5 and 45 minutes each time.
Tell me more about the study's findings
Chewing gum didn't reduce the time that patients needed to stay in hospital, although the authors say there may not have been enough people in the study to look at this.
The authors think that gum chewing may help people recover more quickly from surgery because it acts as a kind of 'sham feeding'. This stimulates the nerves in the digestive system and triggers the release of digestive juices, which helps the bowel to work sooner.
Where does the study come from?
The study was done by researchers from Imperial College, London and St Mary's Hospital, London. It was published in a journal called the Archives of Surgery.
How reliable are the findings?
Although this study combined the results from five studies, there were only 158 patients involved. Also, gum seemed to work much better for some patients than others. This makes the results slightly less reliable.
We need the results of a much bigger study to confirm the findings from this study, and to answer the important question of whether chewing gum after bowel surgery can reduce the time patients need to spend in hospital.
What does this mean for me?
The study shows that chewing gum may help some patients who've had bowel surgery. But the improvements are quite small and not everyone found it helpful.
What should I do now?
If you're due to have surgery on your bowels in the near future you may want to think about chewing gum after your operation. Doctors will want to see the results from this study confirmed in a bigger study, before they start routinely advising patients to use gum. But if you'd like to try it, ask your doctor if he or she would be happy for you to so do.
Patients in one of the studies said that chewing gum helped to keep their mouth moist after surgery. And it may also help your bowels to return to normal sooner. None of the studies reported any side effects from chewing gum.
From:
Purkayastha S, Tilney HS, Darzi AW, et al. Meta-analysis of randomized studies evaluating chewing gum to enhance postoperative recovery following colostomy. Archives of Surgery. 2008; 143 :788-793.
To learn more see our information on Bowel cancer and Diverticulitis.
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