1. Surgical nutrition is important for well-nourished and malnourished patients who cannot take oral food for over a week after surgery to avoid prolonged starvation.
2. There are two main types of nutritional support - enteral involving feeding through the gastrointestinal tract, and parenteral involving intravenous feeding.
3. Enteral feeding has advantages of being more physiological but also risks like tube dislodgement, while parenteral nutrition is used when enteral is not possible and improves outcomes but carries risks of infections. Monitoring is important for both.