A clinical trial to study the effects of coffee and chewing gum on return of normal bowel function after undergoing surgery for malignant tumors of female reproductive system.

Intervention1: Chewing gum: sugarless chewing gums to chew 3 times daily at 15:00, 19:00, and, 10.00 hours until initiation of solid diet or, for 2 days whichever is earlier, starting from the day of surgery itself, each session of chewing to last 30 minutes.
Intervention2: Coffee: Coffee will be dispensed from a single vending machine using same brand of coffee capsules, containing fixed and known proportion of caffeine and other ingredients : to drink three cups of caffeinated coffee daily (100 mL at 08:00, 12:00, and 16:00), beginning on Post-operative day (POD) 1. Patients have to drink the entire 100 mL amounts within 20 min under the supervision of a nursing officer. This will be contined for 2 days or upto initiatiation of solid diet, whichever is earlier.
Control Intervention1: nil intervention: This group will receive post-operative care in form of hydration, antibiotics, anti-emetics, thrombo-prophylaxis, ambulation as per department protocol. They will receive analgesia by means of epidural infusion, and, paracetamol (no opioids)
Primary outcome(s): The time interval in hours between skin closure of surgery to first solid oral feedTimepoint: time when the patient takes first oral feed after surgery for first time
Study Design: Randomized, Parallel Group, Placebo Controlled Trial
Method of generating randomization sequence:Permuted block randomization, fixed Method of allocation concealment:On-site computer system Blinding and masking:Open Label