• A E Durham, T J Phillips, J P Walmsley, and J R Newton.
• The Liphook Equine Hospital, Forest Mere, Liphook, Hampshire GU30 7JG, UK.
• Equine Vet. J. 2004 Jul 1;36(5):390-6.

Reasons For Performing StudyThere is an absence of data describing the nutritional requirements and nutritional status of horses following surgery for colic; furthermore, the potential effect of parenteral nutrition (PN) on improving nutritional status in such cases is unknown.HypothesisPost operative colic cases suffer from a potentially detrimental negative energy balance and the PN formulation developed in this study would lead to clinicopathologically detectable improvements in the subjects' nutritional status.MethodsSeveral clinicopathological variables, some known to be associated with nutritional status, were compared in 2 groups of horses in the post operative period following colic surgery; Group N (n = 15) were treated with PN and Group C (n = 15) were starved routinely.ResultsGroup N had significantly lower serum concentrations of triglycerides, total bilirubin, albumin and urea and significantly higher serum concentrations of glucose and insulin compared with Group C in the post operative period.ConclusionsThe control group of horses demonstrated significant clinicopathological evidence of starvation and the described PN protocol resulted in a demonstrably improved nutritional status in the treated horses.Potential RelevanceFurther study is required to investigate clinical benefits and possible harmful side effects of post operative parenteral nutrition before the technique can be advocated for widespread use in practice.

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