Case controlled study of the hospital stay and return to full activity following laparoscopic and open colorectal surgery before and after the introduction of an enhanced recovery programme

Abstract

Following laparoscopic colorectal resection, patients can be expected to have a hospital stay of under a week and return to their usual activities as early as a week after discharge from hospital and < 2 weeks from surgery in comparison to patients undergoing open surgery who take 8 weeks or more to recover.

Laparoscopic Versus Open Surgery for Mid-Low Rectal Cancer: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Short- and Long-Term Outcomes

“…57 A faster post-operation recovery would well compensate the relatively long operating time for the laparoscopic approach for rectal cancer, 37 and a slightly shorter operating time was observed for the laparoscopic approach in the current analysis.…”

Laparoscopic vs open resection for rectal cancer: a meta‐analysis of randomized clinical trials

“…While enhanced recovery programmes (ERP) bring a greater reduction in recovery time after colorectal surgery [44], only the study by Braga [36] describes the application of these programmes. It was therefore not possible to evaluate their efficacy in terms of recovery time or postoperative complications.…”

Short-term outcomes with intrathecal versus epidural analgesia in laparoscopic colorectal surgery

“…The long‐term and oncological outcomes are similar to those of conventional open surgery9–14. Laparoscopic colorectal surgery is associated with better short‐term outcomes than open surgery14–18 and forms part of a contemporary enhanced recovery programme19, 20.…”