MONDAY, Feb. 20, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Hundreds of millions of dollars racked up by longer-than-necessary hospital stays after intestinal operations might be offset by the simplest and cheapest of activities: chewing gum.
In a small study (34 patients), researchers have found that chewing gum sped up the return of normal bowel function after colon surgery and abbreviated hospital stays by more than two days.
"It certainly is very appealing and cheap to do," said Dr. Michael Harris, associate clinical professor of surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "Although I'm not a huge believer that this is going to change the world, I certainly am going to offer gum to people in my own practice. There's really no downside."
Harris was not involved with the study, which appears in the February issue of Archives of Surgery.
Abdominal surgery can cause ileus -- a prolonged delay or even halt in intestinal function. The condition can involve pain, vomiting and abdominal distension, not to mention longer hospital stays and a heightened risk of hospital-acquired infections.
Experts have estimated that post-operative ileus in the United States carries a price tag of $750 million a year.
"Historically, we have been looking for ways to have people get better sooner from major abdominal surgery, especially intestinal surgery," explained Harris.
Early feeding (before the bowels moved), along with non-narcotic pain relievers and minimally invasive surgery all helped to shorten time in the hospital.
More recently, studies on gum chewing had shown mixed results.
Here, the researchers studied 34 patients who had had part of the large intestine removed, either because of cancer or recurrent diverticular disease. The procedure is called sigmoid colon resection.
Half of the participants were assigned to chew sugarless gum three times a day for one hour at a stretch, starting the morning after their surgery and lasting until their first bowel movement. The other half of the group did not chew gum.
Patients who chewed gum had an average hospital stay of 4.3 days, compared with 6.8 days for the control group. Individuals in the gum-chewing group also passed gas sooner (65.4 hours compared with 80.2 hours after surgery) and had their first bowel movement sooner (63.2 hours versus 89.4 hours) than those who did not chew gum. Those in the gum-chewing group also felt hungry faster (63.5 hours versus 72.8 hours).
Neither group experienced any major complications.
It's not yet clear why gum might have such a salutary effect, although the researchers hypothesized that chewing stimulates the same nerves as eating which, in turn, release hormones that activate the gastrointestinal tract.
"The theory behind the paper is that actual chewing stimulates a neuronal and hormonal reflex that helps to awaken the gut," Harris said. "Certainly, there's a great deal of appeal to that theory."
Future studies might look at alternatives to sugarless gum, such as gum with sugar, different flavors or different textures, to see if they have an even greater effect, the authors stated.
"It's a nice study and I'm probably going to end up saying if you want to chew gum, chew gum," Harris said. "I don't think gum is the magic bullet, but it can't hurt."
More information
For more on colon resection, head to the Baylor College of Medicine.
