Immediate enteral nutrition can accelerate recovery and be safe in mild acute pancreatitis: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Objectives: The effect of early enteral nutrition (EN) in patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) has been confirmed. In recent years, some researchers provided new strategy that immediate EN was offered after admission. The effect and safety of immediate EN was unclear because of the different results among studies. The study aimed to implement the meta analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCT) to confirm the effect and safety between the immediate EN group and the early refeeding group.

Methods: Four electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI) were searched from inception to July 2021. Endnote X7.0 software was used to manage all the relevant citations. Then data extraction and evaluation of risk of bias for included studies were performed after initial selection and full-text selection. All statistical analyses were performed by Review Manager 5.3 version software.

Results: 5 randomized controlled trials (RCT) involving 372 patients were included in the present study. The meta analysis revealed that immediate EN after admission in patients with AP could significantly decrease the length of hospital stay (LOHS) (Mean difference [MD] = 2.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.41-4.72) and the intolerance of feeding (risk ratio [RR] = 0.78, 95%CI = 0.63-0.95), compared with early refeeding. But immediate EN couldn't significantly decrease the incidence of readmission after discharging (RR = 0.51, 95%CI = 0.12-2.27), the incidence of progression to severe pancreatitis (RR = 0.76, 95%CI = 0.15-3.76), the incidence of complications (RR = 1.12, 95%CI = 0.50-2.49) and the values of C-reactive protein (CRP) and leukocyte counts (MD = 1.05, 95%CI = 0.15-2.26 and MD = 0.11, 95%CI = 0.59-0.80), compared with early refeeding.

Conclusions: Compared with early refeeding, immediate EN after admission could safely reduce LOHS and intolerance of feeding in patients with AP.