The effect of chewing gum on bowel movements after appendectomy

Postoperative ileus after appendectomy causes gas storage, distention, nausea, vomiting, and even pain. Gum chewing is one of the ways that can reduce the duration of temporary ileus. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of gum chewing on bowel movements following appendectomy. This randomized double-blind clinical trial was done on 46 patients undergoing appendectomy that were divided into equal treatment and control groups. The treatment group chewed gum three times, each time for 20 minutes, 4, 10, and 18 hours after recovery from anesthesia. The control group, however, did not receive any special treatments. The bowel sounds were monitored every two hours using stethoscope. Also, through running interviews with two hour intervals, data were collected regarding the first passage of flatus and defecation. Data were analyzed through SPSS and t-test. On average, the first bowel sounds in treatment and control groups were, respectively, heard at 2.08±0.41 and 3.13±1.45 hours, whereas gas passage in treatment and control groups was reported at 26.8±14.59 and 50.08±13.92 hours, respectively. Also, the first defecation in the treatment group occurred at 18.91±10.77 hour but in the control group this happened at 29.21±12.11 hour. Based on these observations, a significant difference was seen between the two groups in terms of the test results (p=0.002). The findings of this study showed that chewing gum can help bowel movements after appendectomy.