Chewing gums has stimulatory eff ects on bowel function in patients undergoing cesarean section: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Th e aim of study was to investigate the eff ect of postoperative gum chewing on the recovery of bowel function after cesarean section. Total 100 women delivered by lower uterine segment section cesarean under local anesthesia (spinal). Eligible patients were randomly allocated into two groups: a gum-chewing group (n=50) or a control group (n= 50). Th e gum-chewing group participants who received one stick of sugarless gum for one hours, three times daily immediately after recovery from anesthesia and the control group had the usual postoperative care until being discharged. All women were followed up regularly until discharge from hospital, and recorded the times to the first bowel sounds of normal intestinal sounds, the time to the first passage of flatus, the time to the fi rst feeling of hunger, and the time to the fi rst defecation. Th e operative data, postoperative tolerance of gum chewing, and postoperative complications were documented. Th ere was no statistically signifi cant diff erence between the two groups in terms of demographic characteristics such as age, body mass index, parity, duration of surgery, number of miscarriages and curettages, time to the fi rst feeding, the amount of serum intake, and type of cesarean section. Th e mean average postoperative interval of the fi rst bowel sounds (21.9 versus 26.1 hours, p= 0.016), the fi rst feeling of hunger (11.8 versus 14.5 hours, p= 0.050), the fi rst passage of fl atus (24.8 versus 30.0 hours, P=0.002), the fi rst defecation (30.6 versus 38.4 hours, P= 0.0001) was signifi cantly shorter compared to the control group. © 2012 Association of Basic Medical Sciences of FBIH.