Specialized Nutritional Support and Cancer

Over a 7 1/2-year period, 94 cancer patients presenting considerable operative risk were managed by total parenteral nutrition (TPN). All were nutritionally depleted, had obstruction to the gastrointestinal tract or had postoperative complications such as enterocutaneous fistulas, evisceration or intra-abdominal sepsis, which left TPN as the only means of achieving anabolism. When TPN was started preoperatively and continued post-operatively …