The early oral refeeding (EOR) was found to be safe in patients with predicted mild acute biliary pancreatitis, with no adverse gastrointestinal events, and it also lessens the duration of hospital stay and associated costs as compared to the usual oral refeeding (UOR), as determined by a non-inferiority randomized controlled trial issued in July in BMC Gastroenterology.

The study under consideration compared the beginning of oral feeding in the first 24 hours following hospital admission with usual oral refeeding. It also ascertained whether the timing of the beginning of oral feeding affects the pain recurrence or changes the blood levels of pancreatic enzymes in acute biliary pancreatitis patients.

Patients with a diagnosis of predicted mild acute biliary pancreatitis were separated into Group A or the early oral refeeding, EOR and; Group B or the usual oral refeeding, UOR. The levels of pancreatic lipase, the systemic inflammatory response (leukocytes concentration), feasibility (assessed by abdominal pain recurrence), the occurrence and recurrence of gastrointestinal symptoms and the duration of hospital stay were all considered as outcome measures.

As found, after oral refeeding, 2 patients in the EOR group had pain relapse (3.2%), and 4 patients in the UOR group had pain relapse (6.77%). Following the onset of oral refeeding, nausea and vomiting occurrences did not vary between the two groups. The patients in the UOR group had roughly 48 hours later onset of oral refeeding. The duration of hospital stay was 5 days in the EOR group and 8 days in the UOR group, thereby contributing to higher hospital costs in the UOR group as observed in below table:

Table: Hospital stay comparison between the two groups