Early closure of the protective ileostomy after rectal resection should become part of the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol: a randomized, prospective, two-center clinical trial.

Introduction: Protective loop ileostomy (PLI) is used to reduce the anastomotic leak rate after resection of the rectum. It is an effective, yet burdensome procedure contradicting the aims of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) by slowing down recovery. Early closure (EC) of the PLI has the potential to change the situation, and it should become part of ERAS.

Nutritional support teams: the cooperation among physicians and pharmacists helps improve cost-effectiveness of home parenteral nutrition (HPN).

Introduction: Modern home parenteral nutrition (HPN) requires the preparation of tailored admixtures. The physicians' demands for their composition are often at the variance with pharmaceutical principles, which causes the necessity of either the preparation of ex tempore admixtures or stability testing ensuring long shelf life. Both approaches are not cost-effective.

Home enteral nutrition reduces complications, length of stay, and health care costs: results from a multicenter study.

Background: Home enteral nutrition (HEN) has always been recognized as a life-saving procedure, but with the ongoing economic crisis influencing health care, its cost-effectiveness has been questioned recently.

Objective: The unique reimbursement situation in Poland enabled the otherwise ethically unacceptable, hence unavailable, comparison of the period of no-feeding and long-term feeding and the subsequent analyses of the clinical value of the latter and its cost-effectiveness.

Design: The observational multicenter study in the group of 456 HEN patients [142 children: 55 girls and 87 boys, mean (±SD) age 8.

Ultrasound-guided percutaneous 'push-introducer' gastrostomy is a valuable method for accessing the gastrointestinal tract.

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is the most effective and least invasive method for enteral nutrition (EN). The most common system for PEG is the 'pull' technique, which . It is not available in case endoscopy cannot be performed.

Perioperative immunonutrition in surgical cancer patients: a summary of a decade of research.

Background: Immunonutrition is assumed to enhance immune system function. In surgical patients, it is supposed to reduce postoperative complications. However, results of recent clinical trials have been puzzling and have not supported this theory.