An interventional study of early enteral nutrition and Conventional enteral nutrition in Uncomplicated Acute Appendicitis in Children, sponsored by Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore. Recruiting at 1 site in Pakistan. Open to participants aged 6 Years to 14 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-06-15.
Sponsored by Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
This clinical trial is conducted to see if after surgery of appendix(open appendectomy) in children giving oral nutrition within 6hours of surgery instead of older method of starting oral nutrition after 24hours of surgery improves the outcome or not which is the length of hospital stay(from the day of surgery until discharge) and to look for complications associated with oral nutrition (nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension, diarrhea) as well as return of bowel activity after surgery that is passage of flatus(gas) and stool.Participants after taking informed consent are enrolled in two groups,group A in which oral nutrition is started in 6hours and group B in which oral nutrition is started after 24hours of surgery and then see for the outcome during hospital stay until 1week after discharge on follow up.
All patients presenting to the department of paediatric surgery sheikh Zayed hospital with diagnosis of acute appendicitis fulfilling the inclusion criteria will be enrolled. Informed written consent will be taken from the patient's guardian or parent. Patients will be divided into two groups: group A Interventional group (early enteral nutrition) and group B control group (Conventional enteral nutrition). Both groups would be kept nothing per oral as per management of acute appendicitis. Pre-op antibiotic (injection ceftriaxone 50mg/kg/day) would be given. Patient would be kept pain free by using non opioid analgesics. Open appendectomy will be performed. The patients in group A will be given early enteral nutrition within 6hours after recovery from anesthesia and the patients in group B will be managed according to conventional perioperative management protocol of starting enteral nutrition 24hours post surgery. Data will be collected by the researcher along with the recording of results.Quantitative variables of the study would be length of hospital stay,time for the passage of stool and flatus after surgery and qualitative variables would be nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal distension,nasogatric tube insertion and readmission to hospital within 1week. All information will be collected through predesigned questionnaire. Data will be analyzed using Statistical Package for social sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics for windows,version 26.0).Data for age, hospital stay,time for the passage of flatus and stool will be described using mean±SD if normally distributed and median(IQR) otherwise.Comparison between groups will be made by using independent sample T-test or MannWhitney U test depending on normality of data. Data for qualitative measures like gender,nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal distension,NG tube insertion and readmission requirement will be described using frequency and percentages. Comparison among groups will be made by using Chi-square of Fisher-exact test depending on frequencies. P-value ≤ 0.05 will be considered statistically significant.
419 studies on the registry are indexed under Appendicitis; 67 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 88 is below the median of 111 across 252 interventional studies indexed under Appendicitis.
Browse Appendicitis studies →Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore is the lead sponsor of 9 studies on the registry; 5 are open to participants now.
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Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The anaesthetists’ scale of health before surgery: I is healthy, II has a mild illness that is under control, III a severe one, IV a severe illness that is a constant threat to life. V and VI are used for the critically ill and for organ donors.
Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.
What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
ASA physical status
The anaesthetists’ scale of health before surgery: I is healthy, II has a mild illness that is under control, III a severe one, IV a severe illness that is a constant threat to life. V and VI are used for the critically ill and for organ donors.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
BMI (body mass index)
Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.
What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Oral nutrition started within 6hours after surgery (paediatric open appendectomy) to this group
Other: early enteral nutrition
Oral nutrition is started to this group after 24hours of the surgery (open appendectomy)
Other: Conventional enteral nutrition
Oral nutrition started within 6hours after paediatric open appendectomy
Oral nutrition started within 24hours after paediatric open appendectomy
Length of hospital stay
Number of days from the day of surgery until the date of discharge (1-7days)
Time frame: From enrollment until discharge from hospital (1-7days)
Complications associated with early enteral nutrition
Complications such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension and diarrhea associated with early enteral nutrition are observed
Time frame: From enrollment until 1week after discharge on follow up
Time to return of bowel activity
Time to return of bowel activity after surgery assessed by passage of flatus and stool
Time frame: From enrollment until discharge from hospital (1-7days)
Plan to share: No
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Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore