Impact of transesophageal echocardiography dynamic monitoring of left ventricular preload on postoperative gastrointestinal function in colorectal cancer patients undergoing radical surgery

Background: Patients undergoing intestinal tumour surgery are fasted preoperatively for a series of bowel preparations, which makes it difficult to assess the patients' volume, posing a challenge to intraoperative fluid replacement. Besides, inappropriate fluid therapy can cause organ damage and affect the prognosis of patients, and it increases the burden of patients and has a certain impact on patients and families. Material and methods: The authors designed a single-centre, prospective, single-blinded, randomized, parallel-controlled trial. Fifty-four patients undergoing elective radical resection of colorectal cancer were selected and divided into two groups according to whether transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) was used or not during the operation, that is the goal-directed fluid therapy (GDFT) group (group T) guided by TEE and the restrictive fluid therapy group (group C). Fluid replacement was guided according to left ventricular end-diastolic volume index (LVEDVI) in group T and according to restrictive fluid replacement regimen in group C. Results: The first postoperative exhaust time and defecation time in group T [(45 +/- 21), (53 +/- 24) h] were significantly shorter (P<0.05) than those in group C [(63 +/- 26), (77 +/- 30) h]. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in liquid intake time and postoperative nausea and vomiting incidences between the two groups. The total intraoperative fluid volume in group T was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that in group C. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in urine volume between the two groups. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in lactate content, mean arterial pressure, and heart rate at various time points between the two groups. The length of hospital stay in group C [(18 +/- 4) days] was significantly longer (P<0.05) than that in group T [(15 +/- 4) days]. Conclusions: For patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery, fluid therapy by monitoring LVEDVI resulted in faster recovery of gastrointestinal function and shorter hospital stay.