Zhongguo quanke yixue (Jul 2023)
The Efficacy and Safety of Home Enteral Nutrition in Patients with Esophageal Cancer: a Meta-analysis
Abstract
Background Malnutrition is a common complication in patients with esophageal cancer, which has been validated by domestic and international studies to seriously impact the recovery of patients. While the number of patients receiving home enteral nutrition (HEN) is increasing, the effectiveness and safety of HEN for patients with esophageal cancer remains unclear. Objective To systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of HEN by meta-analysis. Methods RCTs on the HEN in patients with esophageal cancer were retrieved in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL, Scopus, Wanfang Data, CNKI, VIP and CBM from inception to December 2021. Patients in the experimental group received HEN support〔both enteral tube feeding (ETF) and oral nutritional supplement (ONS) were both acceptable〕, while patients in the control group received conventional oral diet only. Two researchers independently screened the literature and extracted data. The RoB 2.0 recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies, and the RevMan 5.4.1 software was used to perform the meta-analysis. Results A total of 14 articles were included, involving 1 040 patients with esophageal cancer. Meta-analysis showed that the increase values of body mass, BMI, hemoglobin, serum total protein, serum prealbumin and serum transferrin in the experimental group were higher than those in the control group〔SMD=0.63, 95%CI (0.40, 0.85), P<0.000 01; SMD=0.60, 95%CI (0.44, 0.76), P<0.000 01; SMD=1.58, 95%CI (1.37, 1.79), P<0.000 01; SMD=1.19, 95%CI (0.79, 1.58), P<0.000 01; SMD=0.97, 95%CI (0.79, 1.14), P<0.000 01; SMD=1.12, 95%CI (0.45, 1.79), P=0.001〕. The increase value of serum albumin in the experimental group was higher than that in the control group in both ETF and ONS subgroups analysis〔SMD=1.25, 95%CI (0.82, 1.68), P<0.000 01; SMD=0.61, 95%CI (0.26, 0.97), P<0.000 01〕. The incidence of malnutrition was lower in the experimental group than in the control group〔OR=0.47, 95%CI (0.33, 0.67), P<0.000 1〕. There was no statistically significant differences in the incidence of gastrointestinal complications〔RR=1.33, 95%CI (1.00, 1.77), P=0.05〕and life quality score〔MD=4.97, 95%CI (0.06, 9.87), P=0.05〕 between the two groups. The physical function score of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group〔MD=6.67, 95%CI (2.86, 10.48), P=0.000 6〕, and the fatigue symptom score was lower than that of the control group〔MD=-7.31, 95%CI (-11.85, -2.77), P=0.002〕. Sensitivity analysis showed that the combined results were stable and reliable. Conclusion HEN can significantly improve the nutritional status and physical function, reduce fatigue symptoms of discharged patients after esophageal cancer surgery, and does not increase the incidence of gastrointestinal complications, however, it has not been found to improve the global overall quality of life.
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