The effect of chewing gum on post-cesarean intestine functions

The study was carried out experimentally in order to analyze the effect of chewing gum on the start of post-cesarean intestine functions.The universe of the research was composed of 100 patients, 51 of them being experiment group and 49 beingcontrol group, who had cesarean operation in Dicle University Training and Research Hospital Obstetrics Clinic between the dates of April-September 2011. Following the operation, addition to standard post-operative care experiment group were asked to chewsoft, sugar-free, easily chewable gums that do not include aspartam, sorbitol, xylitol every 2 hours minimum for 15 minutes and maximum for 30 minutes beginning from the 2. hour after operation until starting RI diet. In the study sugar-free chewing gum which is commerically available was used. Control group patients received standard care until they had defecation of gas and stool. Data were collected through descriptive characteristics form and intestine functions tracking form. Coding and evaluation data were done by using SPSS 15.0 program. Data were evaluated with chi-square, fisher exact chi-square, student-t, number, average and percentage. There was statistically significant difference between first defecation time of gas and stool between experiment and control group (p<0.05). It was found that experiment group patients who chewed gum had earlier defecation of gas and stool compared to patients in control group. It is thought that this study would instruct studies to be carried on different patient groups. Keywords: Cesarean operation, intestine functions, chewing gum