Pre-operative nutrition support in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery.

Post-operative management in gastrointestinal (GI) surgery is becoming well established with 'Enhanced Recovery After Surgery' protocols starting 24 hours prior to surgery with carbohydrate loading and early oral or enteral feeding given to patients the first day following surgery. However, whether or not nutritional intervention should be initiated earlier in the preoperative period remains unclear. Poor pre-operative nutritional status has been linked consistently to an increase in post-operative complications and poorer surgical outcome.