Surgery and Nutrition
Pre-Operative (Before Surgery)
Nutrition Screening
Before you have surgery, like creating an ostomy, a j-pouch, or removing part of your intestine, it’s important to check your nutrition. This means looking at what you eat and making sure you’re getting enough nutrients to stay healthy.
There are a few things that can affect your nutrition:
- Eating less: Maybe you’re avoiding certain foods, not feeling hungry, or experiencing pain or nausea.
- Losing nutrients: This could happen if your body isn’t absorbing nutrients well, if you have a lot of liquid bowel movements, or if you have openings (fistulas) between parts of your digestive system or other organs.
- The need for more nutrients: Your body might need more nutrients because of inflammation from a disease, certain medicines affecting nutrient absorption, or healing from surgery or an infection (1).
The process of checking your nutrition can be different for each person. You might be asked questions like:
- Have you lost weight without trying?
- Is your appetite different or less than before?
- Are you eating less than usual?
Your medical team might check the following to see how healthy you are:
- Measure your handgrip strength: This checks how well your muscles are working and helps to show if you’re getting the right nutrition.
- Ask questions about your diet: This might help to figure out if you need more calories, protein, or other nutrients.
- Check for recent unintended weight loss: Losing weight without meaning to is common when you’re dealing with a sickness. Before surgery, your team will try to keep your body weight stable to help you heal better.
- Conduct blood tests for nutrition: They might collect blood to check your vitamin B6, B9, B12, and iron levels. These are important for different body functions, like carrying oxygen in your blood. If these nutrients are too low, you could develop problems like anemia. Making sure these levels are good before surgery can help with your recovery.
After this screening, you might need to see a registered dietitian (RD) to make sure you’re eating the right things for your surgery. (2,20)
Post-Operative (After Surgery)
What should I expect my nutrition to look like after surgery?
After surgery, how you eat will depend on the type of surgery you had and your care plan. Usually, it’s okay to start eating again within 24 hours after surgery. Eating within this time frame has been linked to:
- Lowering the chances of problems from surgery, like leaks.
- Helping the muscles in your stomach and intestines work better.
- Aiding in the healing process.
- Possibly reducing feelings of sickness, throwing up, and bloating.
- Maybe cutting down the time you need to stay in the hospital. (7,8)
Important: Talk to your surgeon and dietitian before you start eating again after surgery. Don’t decide on your own. They’ll let you know when it’s safe for you. If you’re wondering when it’s okay to go back to your usual eating habits after surgery, ask your doctor.
When can I return to eating like I used to before surgery?
After surgery, how you eat is usually personalized, and it’s important to talk with your care team about it.
Right after surgery, the way you eat is not meant to be the same forever. If you’re having trouble adding different foods back into your diet safely, ask your surgeon to connect you with a dietitian who knows about surgeries for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
If your care team thinks you need extra nutrition help after surgery, like total parenteral nutrition (TPN) or enteral nutrition, they’ll work on this toward the end of your time in the hospital, ensuring you have the right medical formulas to aid your recovery.
If getting better is hard physically, ask your doctor if physical therapy could help. Physical therapy has been shown to reduce pain and help people recover after some colorectal surgeries. (9)
Lastly, if you’re finding it tough to cope with life after or during surgery, talk to your doctor about getting support from mental health providers who know about IBD.