• Wensheng Rao, Xue Zhang, Jian Zhang, Ronglin Yan, Zhiqian Hu, and Qiang Wang.
• Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, affiliated to the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
• Int J Colorectal Dis. 2011 Apr 1;26(4):423-9.

ObjectivesNasogastric tubes (NGT) have been routinely used after abdominal procedures, largely due to the accepted tradition, especially in China. However, studies recently questioned the role of routine NGT intubation by stating that it was overused and many complications occurred from its use.MethodsHerein, we performed a systematic review and a meta-analysis evaluating the role of NGT in decompression after elective colon and rectum surgery.ResultsFour fixed-effect models and three randomized-effect models were used for statistics pooling of the relative risks (RR) for the different outcomes. A total of seven articles (1,416 patients) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Patients in NGT group had less vomiting (p < 0.00001; RR = 2.85; 95% CI [2.12, 3.83]), less nasogastric tube replacement (p < 0.00001; RR = 3.90; 95% CI [2.34, 6.52]), but more pharyngolaryngitis (p < 0.00001 RR = 0.14; 95% CI [0.08, 0.26]) and more respiratory infection (p = 0.004; RR = 0.37; 95% CI [0.19, 0.74]). No statistically significant differences were noted in nausea, wound infection or intestinal obstruction.ConclusionIn conclusion, routine NGT decompression did no good to the time to return gastrointestinal function, but increased the morbidity of pharyngolaryngitis and respiratory infection significantly. Routine NGT was not recommended for patients after elective colon and rectum surgery.

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