Abstract: Objective: To investigate the effect of no nasogastric intubation during operation or early removal of nasogastric intubation after operation for patients with elective hepatectomy. Methods: The database of the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang Data and CBM database were screened by two researchers. The Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan5.3 software. Results: A total of 11 articles were included in the study. Totally 826 patients with no nasogastric tube during operation or removal of nasogastric tube within 24 hours after operation were included in the observation group, while 842 with nasogastric tube removal after anal exhaustion were included in the control group. The incidence of postoperative throat pain and pulmonary complications in the observation group were significantly lower than the control group respectively (OR=0.16, 95% CI=0.10-0.23, P<0.05; OR=0.57, 95% CI=0.40-0.81, P<0.05 ). The incidences of postoperative abdominal distention (OR=0.90, 95% CI=0.65-1.23, P>0.05), nausea and vomiting (OR=0.72, 95% CI=0.40-1.30, P>0.05) and other surgical complications (OR=0.76, 95% CI=0.58-1.00, P=0.05) in the observation group were less than the control group, but the differences between the two groups were not statistically different. There were no significant differences between the two groups in postoperative anal exhaust time, feeding time and postoperative hospitalization time. Conclusion: For patients with elective hepatectomy, it seems feasible to have no nasogastric tube during operation or early removal of the nasogastric tube after operation.

Key words: hepatectomy; nasogastric intubation; gastrointestinal decompression; Meta-analysis