Taste Preference of patients directly after surgery in the postoperative anaesthesia care unit (PACU).

For adults and children there are, in general, no limitations after surgery for food and drink intake, which is, among others, stated in a guideline of the European Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ESPEN). If there are limitations in the postoperative diet, it is mostly due to specific surgery, but seldom due to patient factors. In a comprehensive review, containing four meta-analyses, it is showed that it is safe for patients to eat and drink directly postoperatively. In addition, several reviews showed that eating and drinking soon after surgery have a positive effect on postoperative outcome, with a shorter hospital stay, a decrease in postoperative infections and decreased mortality.

Directly after surgery most patients are able and allowed to eat and drink. In daily practice, however, most patients do not eat and/or drink in the first hours after surgery. Many factors seem to influence this discrepancy. One factor that may be of influence is that the range of available food products does not match the taste preference of the postoperative patients in the PACU.

Our taste is influenced by many factors, that means that food is appreciated by a combination of taste, smell, mouthfeel (e.g. texture), temperature and appearance of a product. Taste and smell perception play a significant role in appetite, dietary intake, and food choice.

There are indications that taste preference may be altered after surgery and may differ from taste perception later after surgery, when patients are in the surgical ward. However, there are currently no studies available describing the taste preference of postoperative patients in the PACU and/or in the first hours after surgery. The current study will investigate the taste preference of adult patients in the PACU, in the first hours after surgery and will use this information to develop a product advice for food products in the PACU, which corresponds to the results of patients’ taste preference.

Investigating the taste preference of patients directly after surgery in the PACU, and adjusting the available food products to the outcomes, will help to increase the dietary intake in postoperative patients in the PACU and thereby positively influence their postoperative outcome.

Start of the study: 17-11-2020

Time points for primary outcomes:
- Study parameters will be collected directly postoperatively via a questionnaire in the PACU. The MTPRT questionnaire is a validated questionnaire of the Wageningen University and Research and will be filled in directly online, via a dedicated Ipad.
- The data are collected in a Castor EDC database, and are analysed using the SPSS program.

Time points for secondary outcomes:
- The additional questions regarding appetite, consistency, temperature and texture will be filled in on paper directly postoperative in the PACU, using an NRS scale from 1-5 and then transferred to the Castor database.
- Patient demographics and characteristics will be retrieved from the electronic patient file (which is EPIC at the AMC).
- The patients are directly asked about their preoperative fasting time after surgery in the PACU.
- The other study parameters of the secondary outcomes will be retrieved form the EPIC files of the patients postoperatively.
- These data are collected in the same Castor EDC database as the primary outcomes, and are analysed using the SPSS program.

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