Triantafillidis JK. Perioperative nutritional support in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery: Current views with an emphasis on prehabilitation efforts. World J Gastrointest Surg 2025; 17(6): 101244 [DOI: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i6.101244]
Corresponding Author of This Article
John K Triantafillidis, FEBG, Associate Professor, Department of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit, “Metropolitan General” Hospital, 264 Mesogeion Avenue, Holargos 15562, Attica, Greece. jktrian@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Surgery
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Surg. Jun 27, 2025; 17(6): 101244 Published online Jun 27, 2025. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i6.101244
Perioperative nutritional support in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery: Current views with an emphasis on prehabilitation efforts
John K Triantafillidis
John K Triantafillidis, Department of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit, “Metropolitan General” Hospital, Holargos 15562, Attica, Greece
Author contributions: Triantafillidis JK designed and performed the research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflicts of interest.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: John K Triantafillidis, FEBG, Associate Professor, Department of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit, “Metropolitan General” Hospital, 264 Mesogeion Avenue, Holargos 15562, Attica, Greece. jktrian@gmail.com
Received: September 8, 2024 Revised: January 21, 2025 Accepted: February 20, 2025 Published online: June 27, 2025 Processing time: 263 Days and 17.9 Hours
Abstract
Continuously increasing reports in the international medical literature, along with current guidelines from international societies, support the view that perioperative enteral nutrition (EN) and immunonutrition offer significant benefits to patients with benign and/or malignant digestive disorders, including reduction of postoperative infections and hospital stay. A vital component of the rehabilitation of patients after major gastrointestinal surgery is a comprehensive nutritional rehabilitation program. It has been shown that implementing an integrated nutritional support program significantly improves patients’ immune responses, accelerates wound healing processes, reduces pain and accompanying anxiety, and decreases hospital length of stay. It appears that, in addition to the efforts of rehabilitation, prehabilitation, i.e. the return to the presurgery level of physical fitness, is or should be a vital objective of the team responsible for rehabilitating patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. The present review summarized the most up-to-date data on the role of perioperative nutritional support (EN and immune EN) in the rehabilitation and prehabilitation of patients undergoing major digestive surgery. Systematic and comprehensive perioperative nutritional support for these patients should become a daily clinical practice element of paramount importance.
Core Tip: Perioperative nutritional support [enteral nutrition and immune enteral nutrition] and prehabilitation, i.e. the return to the presurgery level of physical fitness of patients undergoing major digestive surgery, is of paramount importance for the outcome of patients treated for benign or malignant gastrointestinal disorders with surgery as it can reduce the rate of postoperative complications and hospital stay. This strategy is increasingly applied in daily clinical practice. The scientific interest in the various parameters of the method is constantly increasing since it is a field of intensive scientific research, especially in developed countries.
