Abstract:Objective: To investigate the safety and efficacy of using enteral nutrition tube for gastrointestinal decompression after surgery in elderly gastric cancer patients. Methods: Sixty-six elderly patients with gastric cancer undergoing surgical treatment from February 2007 to February 2010 in Jilin Provincal Tumor Hospital were enrolled and the patients were randomly assigned to observation group and control group. After surgery, the patients of the observation group underwent gastrointestinal decompression by using enteral nutrition tube (Flocare nasogastric tube), while those of the control group by using common stomach tube (F16). The tube patency, adverse reactions such as sore throat, nausea and vomiting, and complications such as lung infection, anastomotic leakage and wound infection or dehiscence were observed. Results: The tube patency rates of the observation group and control group were 94.11% and 97%, respectively (P>0.05). The incidences of adverse reactions of the observation group (sore throat was 8.84%; nausea and vomiting was 5.88%) were lower than those of the control group (sore throat was 28.13%; nausea and vomiting was 25.00%), and the differences had statistical significances (both P<0.05). There were no significant differences in the incidences of complications between the two groups (all P>0.05). Conclusion: Postoperative application of enteral nutrition tube for gastrointestinal decompression in elderly gastric cancer patients can achieve the same effect as the common stomach tube. Moreover, it causes fewer adverse effects, and thus is advantageous for the postoperative recovery of these patients.