The Use of Coffee to Decrease the Incidence of Postoperative Ileus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of providing coffee to elective abdominal surgery patients, immediately postoperatively, to lessen postoperative ileus.

Design: A systematic review with meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials published since 2012.

Methods: Methodological quality was evaluated using the Cochrane guidelines. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations assessment tool evaluated the quality of the evidence. Subgroup analyses were completed if the I statistic demonstrated heterogeneity (greater than 50%).

Findings: Coffee was statistically significant in shortening the time between surgery and the first passage of stool (mean difference, -9.38; 95% confidence interval, -17.60 to -1.16; P = .03). Although not statistically significant (P = .20), the overall effect favored shorter hospital stays for those patients receiving coffee.

Conclusions: The current systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that coffee given as early as 2 hours postoperatively decreases time to first bowel movement. In addition, patients tolerated solid food faster and were discharged sooner when given coffee immediately postoperatively.