A large study published in the late 1970s (Souters et al. 1979) demonstrated that there was a 44% mortality in patients with an enterocutaneous fistula from 1946 to 1959 which fell to 15% between 1960 and 1970 with the introduction of improved parasurgical care; after 1970 no further decrease in mortality rate was observed despite the introduction of parenteral nutrition. It could therefore be argued that parenteral nutrition offers no real additional benefit to these patients. Surprisingly there is no information in the literature comparing enteral nutrition with parenteral nutrition in patients with an enterocutaneous fistula.