Trial of Chewing Gum to Reduce Post Operative Ileus in Elective Colorectal Surgery

Patients will be randomised to one of two arms, the experimental arm will be chewing gum and the control arm will be normal post operative care. The primary endpoint is time to passage of flatus (defined as end of operation to first passage of flatus, in minutes). The trial will be unblinded to patients and observers and has been powered to demonstrate a 15% reduction in passage to flatus (130 patients required)