ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.

Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer

Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1588623

This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing outcomes in colorectal cancer: Multidisciplinary approaches to therapy and pain managementView all 7 articles

Efficacy of Opioid-Free Anesthesia in Short-Term Recovery Following Laparoscopic-Assisted Colorectal Tumor Resection: A randomized trial

Provisionally accepted
Liang  ZhangLiang Zhang1Xian-Hua  YuXian-Hua Yu2Hui-Ming  ZhangHui-Ming Zhang2Sheng  WangSheng Wang2Jian-Long  ChenJian-Long Chen2Xue-Shan  LiXue-Shan Li2Zhi-Yuan  ChenZhi-Yuan Chen1*
  • 1The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China
  • 2Sanming First Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Sanming, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate whether opioid-free anesthesia is non-inferior to opioid-based anesthesia in terms of short-term recovery quality in patients undergoing laparoscopic-assisted colorectal tumor resection.Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 102 participants, who were randomly assigned to one of two groups: opioid-free general anesthesia with thoracic epidural anesthesia (OFA) group and opioid-based general anesthesia with compound transversalis fascia nerve block (OA) group. The primary observation outcomes were the preoperative and postoperative Quality of Recovery-40 (QoR-40) questionnaire scores.Results: No statistically significant differences were observed in preoperative or postoperative QoR-40 scores between the two groups (p = 0.05). However, the OFA group demonstrated a significantly longer recovery time in the recovery room compared to the OA group (p < 0.05). No significant differences were observed between the two groups in postoperative nausea and vomiting, time to first meal after surgery, postoperative drainage tube removal time, postoperative sufentanil dose, or postoperative 24-hour numerical rating scale (p > 0.05).Conclusion: Opioid-free general anesthesia is not superior to opioid-based general anesthesia with transversalis fascia nerve block in terms of short-term postoperative recovery quality following laparoscopic-assisted colorectal tumor resection.

Keywords: Colorectal tumor, laparoscopic surgery, Opioid-free anesthesia, Thoracic epidural anesthesia, transversalis fascia nerve block

Received: 06 Mar 2025; Accepted: 13 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Yu, Zhang, Wang, Chen, Li and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Zhi-Yuan Chen, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, 362000, Fujian Province, China

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