“Surgery is a “traumatic” event in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the concept of doctors, it is a traumatic treatment. It is the concern of every surgical patient and his family to recover from the trauma of surgery as soon as possible. In order for the patient to recover smoothly after surgery, the doctor will evaluate the patient’s whole body condition before surgery and choose the most suitable surgery, i.e., the least traumatic surgery to meet the treatment requirements, in order to facilitate the recovery after surgery. When the patient has passed the surgery and gradually starts to resume the diet, “how to eat” becomes an important issue. First of all, we should have a rough understanding of surgical procedures. According to the site of surgery, we can roughly divide into abdominal surgery and non-abdominal surgery, and the requirements for post-operative dietary recovery are different for different parts of different organs. For non-abdominal surgery such as thyroid, breast, hernia, etc., the patient can start eating in small amounts after awakening from anesthesia because the surgery does not interfere with the gastrointestinal tract. However, for intra-abdominal surgery, especially after gastrointestinal surgery, it is required to eat after the recovery of intestinal function. Premature feeding can lead to abdominal distension and abdominal pain, even vomiting, and in serious cases, anastomotic edema, gastric mucosal erosion and bleeding, and impaired gastric emptying. So for things like gastric and intestinal surgery one must strictly follow the doctor’s medical advice for diet recovery. And for non-gastrointestinal surgery like gallbladder, liver, pancreas and spleen in the abdominal cavity, eating can be resumed after venting. “What to eat? How do I eat?” The postoperative diet management in general surgery is mainly divided into fasting, clear liquid diet, liquid diet, semi-liquid diet and general diet, and the specific contents of each diet are as follows: fasting: that is, “water only” drinking In order to enable the patient to recover smoothly after surgery, the doctor will assess the patient’s general condition before surgery and choose the most suitable surgery, that is, to meet the therapeutic requirements, choose the traumatic surgery. In order to facilitate the patient’s postoperative recovery, the surgeon will evaluate the patient’s general condition before the surgery and choose the most suitable surgery, i.e., the least invasive surgery to meet the treatment requirements. When the patient has passed the surgery and gradually starts to resume eating, “how to eat” becomes an important issue. First of all, we should have a rough understanding of surgical procedures. According to the site of surgery, we can roughly divide into abdominal surgery and non-abdominal surgery, and the requirements for post-operative dietary recovery are different for different parts of different organs. For non-abdominal surgery such as thyroid, breast, hernia, etc., the patient can start eating in small amounts after awakening from anesthesia because the surgery does not interfere with the gastrointestinal tract. However, for intra-abdominal surgery, especially after gastrointestinal surgery, it is required to eat after the recovery of intestinal function. Premature feeding can lead to abdominal distension and abdominal pain, even vomiting, and in serious cases, anastomotic edema, gastric mucosal erosion and bleeding, and impaired gastric emptying. So for things like gastric and intestinal surgery one must strictly follow the doctor’s medical advice for diet recovery. As for non-gastrointestinal surgery like gallbladder, liver, pancreas and spleen in the abdominal cavity, eating can be resumed after venting. Food, in addition if juice etc. is also an option, but milk and soy milk are easy to produce intestinal flatulence, so they should not be consumed, and also overly sweet liquids should be avoided. Fasting is suitable for the early postoperative period, before the exhaustion stage. Clear liquid diet: It refers to a liquid diet with strict restrictions, in principle, it is appropriate to have “no residue”, that is, food that does not produce feces, you can choose rice soup, vegetable juice, etc. In addition, you can add salt, soy bean curd, etc. to help replenish a certain amount of salt. Clear liquid food is suitable for those who have just started eating. Liquid food: such as thin porridge, lotus root powder, sesame paste, etc. The principle is easy to swallow, easy to digest and non-irritating. Semi-liquid diet: rice porridge, millet porridge, noodles, noodle sheets, wontons, steamed egg custard, tofu brain, bananas, etc. can be chosen, taking care to avoid spicy and stimulating foods. General diet: that is, a general diet with no special restrictions. Here is the process of dietary transition. For patients who have undergone abdominal surgery, the sign that they can start to eat is “venting”, that is, farting, which is a sign of recovery of the gastrointestinal tract function, and the recovery of “bowel sounds” on auscultation during the doctor’s examination is also an important indicator. After the initial recovery of intestinal function, you can begin to drink a small amount of water, and then, in the above order, gradually transition. For non-abdominal surgeries such as thyroid, breast and hernia, you can eat and drink normally after you are fully awake from anesthesia because the surgical area has not entered the abdominal cavity, but for thyroid surgery, because the surgical area is located in the neck, it may cause pain and other discomfort when swallowing, so you can start with a liquid diet and transition to a normal diet within 2-3 days. As for patients with non-gastrointestinal abdominal surgery, they should start drinking water from the first day after surgery, about 20-30ml each time, a few times, and if there is no discomfort, they can transition to a diet in a sequence of 1-2 days, but they should pay attention to choosing light food, avoiding overeating and eating stimulating food, and can generally return to a normal diet in about a week. In contrast, patients with gastrointestinal surgery recover more slowly, and the order of diet transition is the same as that of patients with non-gastrointestinal surgery, but each stage should be maintained for about 3-4 days, with attention to small amounts of liquid diet, gradually increasing the amount, starting with 30-40ml each time, and then gradually increasing to 200-300ml, with 5-6 meals per day. When entering the semi-liquid diet stage, the diet should be thin, soft and easy to digest, as low as possible, to minimize the amount and number of stool excretion in the early postoperative period. At the same time, the postoperative diet should pay attention to the replenishment of energy and electrolytes, so the choice of food should be mainly high protein, pay attention to the addition of salt, while avoiding large fish and meat, high fiber and other foods that are not easy to digest and increase the burden on the intestine. “If there is no discomfort” …… above, “if there is no discomfort”, then you can move on to the next stage of the diet, so “discomfort What does “discomfort” mean? Generally speaking, bloating, nausea, vomiting, and cessation of exhaustion after diet are signs of too fast a diet transition, which often requires a reduction in the amount of food eaten for observation, and if there is no improvement, the diet needs to be restored to the previous stage. If the postoperative diet is restored too quickly, it may cause “postoperative inflammatory bowel obstruction”, which requires a return to a fasting state and a “fresh start”, and the recovery time is significantly longer. In addition, many people like to take a variety of nutrients after surgery “tonic”, in fact, these nutrients can only play a supporting role in recovery, the most important post-operative recovery is to choose the appropriate diet at each stage, to ensure good absorption of nutrients in food, you can successfully pass the post-surgery recovery period. Of course, the above dietary transition principles are “general rules”, but each person should spend the post-operative dietary transition period smoothly under the guidance of doctors.