Diet taboos after liver abscess surgery

Liver abscess surgery is not as exaggerated as the 20 or 30 taboos posted online. The three most taboo items are high-fat and oily foods, any alcoholic beverages, and supplements/recipes that have not been evaluated by a doctor. The rest of the taboos are related to your recovery stage after surgery and your personal physique. There is no absolute "can't eat".

Last month, I managed a 42-year-old patient with bacterial liver abscess. He usually liked to drink a few sips. Just a week after the surgery, he felt that he was almost recovered. His friend asked him to go eat skewers and drink cold beer. After the meal, he suffered from abdominal pain and high fever that night. When he came back for a review, the abscess almost recurred. He was hospitalized for another week. It was a pure and innocent experience.

The first thing many family members ask when they come up is whether they can eat seafood, beef and mutton. Is this considered "fat food"? There are different opinions on this issue in the industry. There is no clear definition of "fat" in Western medicine. As long as you have not suffered from allergies or diarrhea after eating these things before, eating some steamed seabass or lean beef tenderloin 3 days after the operation can supplement high-quality protein, which is much better than drinking white porridge every day. If the protein is enough, the inflammation will disappear quickly and the wound will grow well. However, there are also schools of traditional Chinese medicine that recommend avoiding spicy and fishy foods for the first two weeks after surgery, for fear of stimulating inflammatory reactions. If you are allergic, or you are prone to rashes and diarrhea after eating seafood, then there is nothing wrong with eating it two weeks later, and you don’t have to argue with the elderly at home.

In the first 2-3 days after getting off the operating table, when you haven't passed the gas yet, really don't put anything into your mouth, even if your family members say, "Just take a sip of rice soup to moisten your mouth." I have seen too many family members of distressed patients who secretly feed the patient until the patient suffers from intestinal obstruction. He was supposed to be able to pass gas and eat in three or four days, but ended up having to have a gastric tube inserted to decompress the patient, which added to the suffering for several days. At this time, even if the mouth is dry, just wipe the lips with a wet cotton swab. Listen to the nurse's advice.

The one week or so after exhaust is a transitional period. At this time, the inflammation in the liver has not completely subsided, and the metabolic capacity is much worse than usual. Don't touch those fat and oily things, such as the layer of yellow oil on the old hen soup, the glutinous stewed pig's trotters, take-out fried chicken tenders, and heavy butter hot pot. There was an aunt who felt weak after surgery. She drank old hen soup without skimming the oil every time. She started to feel nauseated and vomited after 3 days of drinking it. The transaminase test was 3 times higher than when she was discharged. To put it bluntly, the liver could not metabolize so much fat and she was exhausted. There is also alcohol, whether it is liquor, beer, or so-called health-promoting fruit wine or medicinal wine, even if it is only a few degrees, do not drink it. Alcohol directly damages liver cells. You think, the liver has just been chewed by an abscess.

Another pitfall that many people easily fall into is taking supplements blindly, such as "liver-protecting tea", "notoginseng powder", "cordyceps", and "post-operative nutrition pills" given by relatives with unknown ingredients. Many of these things require liver metabolism, and many even have unknown hepatotoxicity. There was a patient who secretly took liver-protecting health supplements for half a month after surgery. He was almost cured, but jaundice appeared. It was found out that it was drug-induced liver injury, and it took almost a month for treatment to heal. It was really not a problem. If you want to supplement nutrition, eat some boiled eggs, warm milk, lean pork, and fresh green leafy vegetables. They are more reliable than any supplements of unknown origin.

There is another question that people often ask: Can I eat spicy food? I generally won't say no directly. If you are a friend from Sichuan, Chongqing or Hunan, you can't live without spicy food before the operation, and the wound will have healed two or three weeks after the operation. It's okay to eat some mildly spicy food as an appetizer. Your appetite is already poor after the operation, so eating something is better than anything else. But if you don’t like spicy food, or you are still taking antibiotics after surgery, then don’t touch it. Spicy food can irritate the gastrointestinal tract and cause diarrhea. Diarrhea will remove immunoglobulins from your body. Once your immunity is low, abscesses can easily recur.

Oh, by the way, patients with diabetes should eat extra snacks and eat as little high-sugar foods as milk tea, cream cakes, and preserves. High blood sugar is a natural breeding ground for bacteria. Many people get liver abscesses because their blood sugar is not well controlled. If blood sugar is still floating after surgery, bacteria can easily travel to the liver to cause damage, which will be troublesome.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there are really not so many rules for diet after liver abscess surgery. The core is to reduce the burden on the newly recovered liver and not to add too much work to it. If you feel comfortable after eating, and there is no swelling, pain, nausea, or diarrhea, then you can eat it. If you are not sure, take a photo and ask your bedside doctor. It is much more reliable than searching on Baidu for a long time to "can you eat such and such a thing?"