Gum Chewing Following Cesarean
In their research article entitled "Gum-Chewing Speeds Return of First Bowel Sounds but Not First Defecation after Cesarean Section," Harma et al. (2009) explore a two-fold research question. First, they looked into the duration of postoperative ileus if gum was chewed following a cesarean section. Secondly they looked at whether there was a difference in the results when comparing patients who chewed sugar-free gum with the results of those who chewed gum with sugar substitute in it. In the experiment, 76 women were divided into three categories, the control group, the sugar-free gum group, and the group who were given sugar-substituted gum. The patients who got to chew gum did so every fifteen minutes starting two hours after their surgery. What the researchers found was that there was no marked difference between the three groups in comparing the time it took to their first episode of flatus following the cesarean section. They also found that there was little or no difference in the time it took to have their first...
However, they did find that the first bowel sounds appeared in patients who were given the sugar-substituted gum far sooner than in either of the two groups. Those given sugar-substituted gum had the first bowel sounds at approximately 6.3 postoperative hours. The patients who were given sugar-free gum had the first bowel sounds at an average of 8.8 postoperative hours. Finally, patients in the control group experienced their first bowel sounds on average at 11.2 hours. Therefore, chewing sugar-free gum after a cesarean section is better than having no gum, but having sugar-substitute gum is the best possible solution if the goal is to produce the first bowel sounds. However, in terms of flatus and defecation, there is no significant difference between participants in any of the three groups.
Gum Chewing to Reduce Postoperative Ileus
Extensive research has been conducted into the process of gum chewing following various surgical procedures related to the digestive system.…
