ASSESSMENT OF ENHANCED RECOVERY AFTER SURGERY (ERAS®) PROTOCOL IN COLORECTAL CANCER SURGERY

Introduction: Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer among men and is second in women. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is used to improve the patient who underwent colorectal cancer surgery. Therefore, this study analyzed the clinical data of patients with colorectal cancer surgery who were treated according to the ERAS protocol. Method: Patients scheduled for elective colorectal surgery between January 2017 and August 2022 were recruited in the current study. On the day of admission, patients were informed of the ERAS protocol and written informed consent form was taken from each patient. The ERAS team closely monitored and documented each ERAS protocol. The study outcome includes post-operative complications, re-admission and re-operation rate within 30 days, and length of hospital stay. The intention-to-treat statistical model was used for the current study. The data were analyzed using SPSS v25 and Jamovi®. Results: The mean age of the study participants was 61.85 ± 8.45 years. Most of the participants were male (64.2%), and the most common co-morbidities were hypertension (27.6%) and diabetes (26.8%). The patients in the high adherence group showed a significant reduction in the post-operative complications(p<0.001) based on Clavien–Dindograding. Surgical wound infection was most reported surgical complication (30.1%). Additionally, paralytic ileus (17.9%) and abdominal abscess (16.3%) were also common. Overall, the post-operative surgical complications were significantly reduced in the high adherence group. More than half of the study participants were re-admitted within 30 days (54.5%), and most prevalent in the low and mild adhered groups. Conclusion: The present research found that when adherence to the ERAS protocol increased, surgical complications, re-admission, re-operation, and duration of stay in the hospital decreased significantly.