Objective: To find out if routine nasogastric tube decompression is necessary after radical gastrectomy with systematic extensive lymphadenectomy in patients with gastric cancer.
Design: Prospective randomised trial.
Setting: Surgical Department, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan.
Subjects: 74 patients with gastric cancer including 11 with gastric outlet obstruction who underwent radical distal gastrectomy.
Interventions: After operation, 37 patients were randomised to receive nasogastric intubation and 37 not to have it.
Main outcome measures: Morbidity, mortality, and speed of recovery.
Results: No patient died after operation. The groups were comparable for the day of starting oral diet, rate of reinsertion of nasogastric tube and morbidity. Patients who were not intubated mobilised more quickly, and spent less time in hospital. Only one of seven patients with gastric outlet obstruction who had not been intubated needed to be so.
Conclusions: Routine postoperative nasogastric decompression is unnecessary after radical gastrectomy even in the presence of gastric outlet obstruction.