Immediate oral feeding after free-flap reconstruction of the oral cavity.

Aim: There remains no consensus on the definition or value of early oral feeding after head and neck surgery. The main objective of this study was to determine how immediate oral feeding (IOF) with soft diet within 2 days following free-flap reconstruction of the oral cavity affected severe post-operative morbidity within 30 days and length of hospital stay (LoS).

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was carried out in 2021-2023 in our tertiary hospital center.