Objective：To investigate the influence of different methods of nutritional support on infection rate during the early postoperative period of liver transplantation (LTx).
Methods：Forty-five LTx recipients, who were to be given nutritional support in the early postoperative stage (1-7 days after operation), were randomly assigned into parental nutrition (PN) group, enteral nutrition (EN) group and metabolic intervention (MI) group (EN+glutamine+arginine) with 15 cases in each group. Each group of nutritional support received equal amounts of nitrogen and calories. The infection rate of each group in 2 weeks post-LTx was observed.
Results：The infection rate within 2 weeks post-LTx between the EN and MI group showed no difference, but both was significantly lower than that of the PN group (P＜0.05).
Conclusions：EN and MI supports are more effective than PN support in reducing the risk of infection during the early postoperative period of LTx.