Association between the Duration of Early Feeding and Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Intensive Care Settings: FAST HUG

The objective of this study is to relationship between early feeding durations on gastrointestinal symptoms in post-surgical patients admitted to intensive care. The study sample consisted of 80 patients admitted to post-operative intensive care units between February 1 and April 30, 2022. Data was collected by the researchers using the Patient Information Form and the ‘‘Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale’’ (GSRS). Data analysis was conducted using the free trial version of SPSS. Reliability analysis was performed to assess the consistency of the scales utilized. The patients had an average age of 60.43±16.87, with 45% being women and 55% being men. The average time to mobilization for patients was 2.24±1.20, and the average length of hospital stay was 13.09±9.65 days. Among the patients, 63.8% were receiving enteral nutrition, while 36.3% were receiving parenteral nutrition. The average day of initiating feeding was calculated as 1.90 ± 0.92. On the GSRS, patients had a total mean score of 24.35±8.76, indicating a low level of symptom severity. There was no statistically significant relationship observed between the GSRS-diarrhea score, GSRS-abdominal pain score, GSRS-reflux score, and the nutritional status of the patients (p>0.05). However, a positive correlation was found between the GSRS-constipation score (r: .271; p<0.05) and the GSRS-indigestion score (r: .269; p<0.05) on the day of patient mobilization. Our study findings indicated that patients who received feeding in the intensive care unit exhibited minimal gastrointestinal symptoms. Furthermore, we observed that delaying patient mobilization was associated with a higher prevalence of constipation and indigestion symptoms.