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Arch Surg. 2002;137:867.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Jeschke et al¹ showed that increasing enteral nutrition could ameliorate the adverse hypermetabolic consequences of thermal injury in their rat model. The rat gut better tolerates major insults than the more fragile human intestinal tract. However, despite species differences, there is good reason to believe that humans respond similarly to hypermetabolic stresses.

Almost 40 years ago, we reported that adequately fed patients developed a positive protein balance within hours of colectomy.² We subsequently demonstrated both experimentally and clinically that our enteral hyperalimentation regimen led to improved albumin and globulin synthesis, accelerated anastomotic wound healing, and shortened hospitalization.^3-5

Feeding is rightfully feared as a double-edged sword. A prospective randomized study of major abdominal surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY) concluded that their regimen of enteral feeding was detrimental.⁶ Surgeons in Ottawa, Ontario, reached the same conclusion, but they also scrutinized the potentially detrimental pulmonary effects of early postoperative . . . [Full Text of this Article]