Chewing gum may speed recovery after bowel surgery

A study has shown that chewing gum may speed recovery after bowel surgery.

Surprisingly chewing gum seemed to speed up the return of normal bowel function and, thereby, cut the hospital stay by about 2 days, according to a report in the February issue of the Archives of Surgery.
Apparently gum is believed to whet the same nerves as eating promoting the release of hormones that activate the gastrointestinal tract.

Normally any type of abdominal surgery or bowel surgery to be specific can cause a marked decrease or stoppage of intestinal function, also known as ileus. This may cause pain, vomiting and abdominal distension and keep patients in the hospital longer.
The researchers at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, California studied 34 patients who underwent sigmoid colon resection- a surgery to remove a portion of the large intestine. Half were made to chew 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.

The chewing of gum also resulted in the patients being able to pass gas sooner, and have their first bowel movement sooner than those who did not.
Professor Neil Mortensen, an expert adviser to Bowel Cancer UK, said: "This is a small study which needs to be confirmed in bigger trials.

"There is some scientific basis for chewing stimulating gut function and early return of gut function is an important goal of post operative care."

Dr Julie Sharp, of Cancer Research UK, said: "This is an unusual approach and if shown to be effective would be a cheap and simple procedure.

"But the study only looked at 34 patients and more evidence will be needed before chewing gum could be used routinely to aid patient recovery."
As an immediate aftermath of bowel surgery some patients are not to be able to tolerate food, or even water. Thus the researchers argue that getting people to chew gum instead may be cheap and helpful alternative.