Preoperative total parenteral nutrition and surgical outcome in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Further trials are needed to identify the preoperative patient who will have a significantly improved postoperative outcome with the use of total parenteral nutrition. Better nutritional markers are needed to evaluate the response to total parenteral nutrition and to help identify the irreducible minimum that should be given. In our series, patients who received preoperative total parenteral nutrition for at least 5 days had significantly fewer postoperative complications (p less than 0.05) than those who did not. All patients with postoperative complications had either a preoperative serum albumin level less than 3.5 g/dl or a serum transferrin level less than 150 mg/dl. Preoperative total parenteral nutrition for at least 5 days is strongly recommended in patients with inflammatory bowel disease who have severe protein depletion.