Home‐Based Nutritional Counseling After Abdominal Surgery: A Scoping Review Revealing Limited and Heterogeneous Evidence

Patients undergoing abdominal surgery frequently experience inadequate postoperative nutritional intake, potentially compromising recovery. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols emphasize nutrition, but guidance typically ends at hospital discharge, leaving a gap in nutritional support during home recovery. Although post‐discharge nutritional counseling by dietitians has shown benefits in non‐surgical populations, its effectiveness after abdominal surgery remains unclear. This scoping review mapped and characterized studies on home‐based nutritional counseling delivered by dietitians or trained healthcare professionals after abdominal surgery, focusing on intervention components and reported outcomes. A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Cochrane databases was conducted. Eligible studies included original research on home‐based nutritional counseling for adults after abdominal surgery, excluding bariatric or obesity‐related surgery, enteral or parenteral nutrition, and weight loss interventions. Two reviewers independently screened records, and data were extracted according to a preregistered protocol. From 3783 records, 12 publications were included. Most involved elective surgeries in adults aged ≥ 50 years. Nutritional counseling was primarily delivered remotely by telephone and frequently included oral nutritional supplements and guidance to achieve protein intakes of 1.0–1.5 g/kg/day. Outcomes were heterogeneous. Nutritional intake improved following the interventions, and trends suggested benefits for reduced weight loss, muscle mass, and quality of life, although findings were mixed. Patient‐reported outcomes were variably assessed using multiple instruments, and evidence for functional and clinical outcomes was limited. Current evidence on home‐based nutritional counseling after abdominal surgery remains limited and heterogeneous. Future studies should provide clearer descriptions of counseling content and adopt standardized outcome measures aligned with core outcome sets to improve comparability and strengthen the evidence for clinical practice.