Nutritional support in acute pancreatitis: when to start oral feeds.

Nutritional support in acute pancreatitis had always been a subject of great controversy in the past. The results of the recently published meta-analysis however have shown improved outcome with enteral feeding when compared to parenteral nutrition in patients with severe acute pancreatitis. However the time of initiation of oral feeds in acute pancreatitis is still a subject of controversy, given the fact that a large number of patients have a recurrence of abdominal pain when the oral feeds are initiated based on subjective parameters and the incident rise in duration of hospitalization and hospital costs. This brief communication highlights the present literature in the nutrition support in acute pancreatitis patients and discusses the future studies required to study the often neglected topic of nutrition therapy in acute pancreatitis.