Impact of short-term omega-3 fatty acids supplementation on clinical outcomes in postoperative patients with parenteral nutrition support: a Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials / 中华临床营养杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of omega-3 fatty acids intervention on clinical outcomes in postoperative patients with parenteral nutrition (PN). MethodsLiteratures relating to the evaluation of the clinical outcomes after supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids after selective surgeries were searched in databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Chinese Biomedical Databases, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Database etc. All the eligible studies were randomized controlled trials and their results were published from January 1996 to June 2010. The methodological quality was assessed using Jadad scale, Schulz allocation concealment tool, and methodology review. Meta analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.1 software. The impact was described in terms of complications of infection, case-fatality rate, length of postoperative hospital stay, and length of postoperative ICU stay. ResultsTotally 320 articles were found and 17 randomized controlled trials ( n =1213 ) entered final meta analysis study. The results showed a significant decrease in the infectious complication rates of postoperative patients receiving omega-3 fatty acids intervention [risk ratio (RR) =0.44, 95％ confidence interval (CI) (0.30, 0.64), P ＜0.0001] ; meanwhile, the length of hospital stay was significantly shortened [mean difference (MD) =- 1.65 ; 95％ CI ( - 2.72, - 0.58), P =0.003]. However,the length of ICU stay showed no significant difference [MD =-0.31,95％ CI ( - 1.20, 0.58), P =0.500].ConclusionOmega-3 fatty acids interventions can benefit postoperative patients by reducing the morbidity of postoperative infectious complications and shortening the length of hospital stay.