Table 2.
Comparison of primary outcome (length of stay) and selected secondary outcome measures between treatment groups
| Overall proportion receiving gum‡ | Chewing gum | Standard care | P # | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length of postoperative hospital stay (days) | 199 of 402 (49·5) | 7 (5–11) | 7 (5–11) | 0·962 |
| Postoperative day bowel sounds first heard | 58 of 136 (42·6) | 2 (1–3) | 2 (1–3) | 0·619 |
| Postoperative day of first flatus | 130 of 268 (48·5) | 2 (2–3) | 2 (1–3) | 0·586 |
| Postoperative day of first bowel movement | 159 of 310 (51·3) | 2 (1–3) | 3 (1–4) | 0·153 |
| Postoperative day first ate solid food | 188 of 385 (48·8) | 1 (1–2) | 1 (1–2) | 0·920 |
| Postoperative day solid food tolerated§ | 131 of 260 (50·4) | 2 (1–3) | 2 (1–3) | 0·223 |
| Abdominal pain score (%)¶ | 154 of 324 (47·5) | 49 (22–69) | 43 (21–65) | 0·496 |
| Nausea score (%)¶ | 156 of 327 (47·7) | 9 (2–52) | 10 (2–51) | 0·662 |
| Vomiting on day 2 | 0·930** | |||
| Yes | 36 of 70 (51) | 18·3† | 16·8† | |
| No | 144 of 294 (49·0) | 73·1† | 74·3† | |
| Not known | 17 of 35 (49) | 8·6† | 8·9† | |
| EQ‐5D‐3 L™ quality‐of‐life score* | ||||
| Day 4 | 138 of 273 (50·5) | 0·44(0·35) | 0·50(0·34) | 0·116†† |
| 6 weeks | 163 of 328 (49·7) | 0·67(0·32) | 0·76(0·23) | 0·004†† |
| 12 weeks | 142 of 292 (48·6) | 0·74(0·31) | 0·80(0·21) | 0·036†† |
Values in parentheses are median (i.q.r.) unless indicated otherwise;
values are mean(s.d.);
values are percentage of patients in group.
Values in parentheses are percentages; the overall number of patients was 402 (199 in chewing gum group and 203 in standard care group), but totals may not add up to this as there were some missing data. For gum and standard care groups, bowel sounds, flatus and bowel movement events were reported as ‘not known’ for 92 and 80, 45 and 41, and one and two patients respectively, and data were missing on at least 1 relevant day for 49 and 45, 24 and 24, and 23 and 26 respectively; for bowel movement, event was reported as ‘no’ for 16 and 24 patients respectively.
Ate at least half of three meals in a day without vomiting.
Visual analogue scale score on day 2 after surgery (0 per cent, none at all; 100 per cent, a lot of pain or very sick).
Mann–Whitney U test, except
χ2 test and
t test.