Laparoscopy in combination with fast-track management is the best surgical strategy in patients undergoing colorectal resection for cancer

Excerpt

Enhanced recovery after surgery provides patients with optimal means to counteract or minimize the deleterious effects of surgery [1]. This concept can be adapted to suit colorectal procedures and comes in the form of a clinical pathway covering the pre-, intra-, and postoperative periods. In a prospective randomized trial, Vlug et al. [2] concluded that laparoscopy in combination with fast-track multimodal management was a better strategy than laparoscopy in a standard care or open surgery in either fast-track or standard care. We feel that laparoscopic colorectal resection for cancer in a fast-track surgery setting is probably the best way to treat patients in 2015, but this is better demonstrated by evidence-based and already published facts than by Vlug and colleagues’ [3‐5] prospective, randomized, four-arm trial. …