Laparoscopic and open right‐sided colonic resection in daily routine practice. A prospective multicentre study within an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol

AIM: The study compared the outcome of laparoscopic and open surgery in daily practice when performed in a strict Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) environment. METHOD: Two-hundred and ninety-two consecutive patients who received elective surgery, in three Swedish ERAS centres, for cancer or adenoma in the right colon in the period 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012, were prospectively registered in a Web-based ERAS database. Peri-operative data were collected from the database and patient charts. The primary end-points included postoperative recovery and morbidity. The secondary objective was to identify preoperative variables that influenced the selection of patients for laparoscopic or open surgery. RESULTS: One-hundred and twenty-three (42%) patients were selected for laparoscopic surgery. The overall preoperative ERAS-compliance rate was 87% and no significant difference was seen between the surgical techniques. In multivariate analysis, patients treated with laparoscopy had significantly earlier pain control (2.4 ± 3.2 days vs 4.2 ± 5.9 days; P = 0.016) and a shorter length of hospital stay (LOS) (4 days vs 6 days; P = 0.002) compared with open surgery. There was no significant difference in the complication rate [18.7% vs 21.3%; OR = 1.0 (95% CI: 0.5-2.0)], the number of lymph nodes removed or the rate of R0 resection between laparoscopic and open surgery. Tumours selected for laparoscopy were generally smaller, had a lower T-stage and were predominantly situated in the caecum and the ascending colon compared with those of patients selected for open surgery. CONCLUSION: The use of laparoscopy in routine right-sided colectomy in an ERAS environment, with data on outcome corrected for selection bias, may result in faster recovery compared with open surgery.