Fast Track Surgery and Its Outcome in Colorectal Surgery in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: Fast track surgery is an evidence-based multidisciplinary approach. The underlying principle is to enable patients to recover from surgery and leave the hospital sooner by minimizing the stress responses on the body during surgery. Our aim was to compare the outcome of fast-track protocol and conventional methods in colorectal surgery. Method: It was an observational cross-sectional study carried out at the Department of Surgery in different tertiary level hospitals, Dhaka Bangladesh during the period January 2014 to December 2017. Among this population, 50 patients were placed in the fast-track program (Group A) from January 2014 to December 2015 and 50 patients were in the conventional method (Group B), from January 2016 to December 2017. The fast-track patients were selected after receiving ethical approval from the Bangladesh College of Physician & Surgeons. Data analysis was done using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) for windows version 20. Results: The average age of the patients was 45.24 ± 16.65 years (range: 11 - 70 years) in the fast track group (Group A) and 43.24 ± 17.76 years in the conventional method (Group B). The majority were female between two groups, with 56% in group A and 52% in group B. General and surgical complications occurred in 9 (18%) patients and 11 (22%) patients respectively in group A. On the other hand in group B general and surgical complications occurred in 10 (20%) patients and 13 (26%) patients respectively. The average hospital stay was 9.24 ± 5.99 days in group A and the average hospital stay was 10.10 ± 6.04 days in group B. Conclusion: Making the decision to adopt fast-track surgery will challenge current traditional practice for all members of the multidisciplinary team across the whole local health community.