Total gastrectomy patients had a lower diet volume and greater diet frequency than distal gastrectomy patients after 6 months.

There are no reports comparing diet recovery between patients who underwent distal gastrectomy (DG) and those who underwent total gastrectomy (TG). The aim of the present study was to compare dietary habits and nutritional status after curative treatment with DG and TG in patients with gastric cancer. We retrospectively collected clinical data from 263 consecutive patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer without recurrence at a single-center between January 2016 and December 2022. Demographic data, diet questionnaires, and laboratory data were collected. Patients were divided into 2 groups: those who underwent DG and those who underwent TG. Dietary habits and nutritional status were compared between the groups from preoperation until the 36th postoperative month (POM). For the DG and TG groups, the diet volume increased similarly up to the 3rd POM. However, the diet volume of the DG group increased by approximately 10 percentage points compared to that of the TG group from the 6th POM to the 24th POM (77.7% vs 67.8%, P = .025) and 36th POM (77.8% vs 69.8%, P = .104). The volume of the DG group increased until the 24th POM, and the frequency of the DG group decreased until the 36th POM. In contrast, the diet volume of the TG group increased until the 3rd POM (P = .005) but then plateaued, and the diet frequency did not decrease until the 36th POM compared to the 1st POM (P > .05). Nutritional status did not significantly differ between the 2 groups. Patients who underwent TG had a lower diet volume and a greater diet frequency than DG patients did after 6 months. Postoperative nutrition education should be tailored differently for patients undergoing DG and TG. Specifically, TG patients should be educated to increase diet frequency rather than diet volume after surgery.