Objective To explore the effect of early enteral nutrition in the clinical treatment of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Methods Forty-two SAP patients who improved with non-surgical treatments between January 2012 and December 2014 were selected and randomly divided into control group and study group with 21 patients in each. Patients in the control group accepted whole venous nutrition, while those in the study group had early enteral nutrition. Nutrition indexes, blood biological indexes, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) Ⅱ score on day 7 and 14 after treatment, and average hospital stay of the two groups of patients were recorded and compared. Results No differences in body weight reduction, lymphocytes, serum albumin, calcium, glucose, APACHE Ⅱ score between the two groups after 7 days of treatment were observed (P>0.05). But there were significant differences in body weight, lymphocytes, serum albumin, and APACHE Ⅱ score between these two groups after 14 days of treatment (P<0.05). Hospital stay of the study group was obviously shorter (P<0.01). Conclusions Early enteral nutrition support for patients with severe acute pancreatitis can improve nutritional status and shorten hospital stay. It is worthy of wider clinical application.