Night home enteral nutrition as a novel enforced and physiologically effective nutrition therapy following total gastrectomy for gastric cancer

Abstract Enteral nutrition has been reported to be safe and effective in malnourished patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal surgery. In this study, we devised night home enteral nutrition (N-HEN) as a novel nutritional strategy and evaluated the efficacy in gastric cancer patients following total gastrectomy. Between January 2017 and March 2021, 24 patients were prospectively included in the protocol and supported by N-HEN for three postoperative months through a jejunostomy during the night (Elental:1200 kcal/day), and 22 patients without N-HEN were followed as a control group (CG). Body weight loss, nutritional indicators and tolerance to chemotherapy were evaluated. After 3 and 6 months, patients with N-HEN had significantly less body weight loss than CG (3 months P