Zhong WQ, Wu S, Jiang RX, Chen SR, Li DY, Zhou J, Wu JX, Zeng RJ, Zhi H. Enhanced recovery after surgery-based recovery room nursing improves perioperative safety in gastrointestinal tumor surgery. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2026; 18(1): 116312 [PMID: 41607742 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v18.i1.116312]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hui Zhi, Chief Nurse, Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, No. 7 Weiwu Road, Jinshui District, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China. zhihuisry@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jan 15, 2026; 18(1): 116312 Published online Jan 15, 2026. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v18.i1.116312
Enhanced recovery after surgery-based recovery room nursing improves perioperative safety in gastrointestinal tumor surgery
Wan-Qi Zhong, Su Wu, Ru-Xin Jiang, Shao-Ru Chen, Dan-Yang Li, Jun Zhou, Jiang-Xia Wu, Ruo-Jing Zeng, Hui Zhi
Wan-Qi Zhong, Su Wu, Ru-Xin Jiang, Dan-Yang Li, Jun Zhou, Jiang-Xia Wu, Ruo-Jing Zeng, Hui Zhi, Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China
Shao-Ru Chen, Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Zhengzhou University People's Hospital, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China
Co-corresponding authors: Ruo-Jing Zeng and Hui Zhi.
Author contributions: Zeng RJ and Zhi H contribute equally to this study as co-corresponding authors; Zhong WQ and Wu S contributed to the study design, protocol development, and manuscript drafting; Jiang RX and Chen SR were responsible for patient recruitment, data collection, and implementation of perioperative nursing interventions; Li DY and Zhou J carried out nursing procedures in the post-anesthesia care unit and recorded relevant clinical data; Wu JX performed statistical analysis and prepared the tables; Zeng RJ assisted with data interpretation and literature review; Zhi H supervised the study design, critically reviewed the manuscript, and participated in its revision; all authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by 2025 Henan Medical Education Research Project, No. WJLX2025038.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Henan Provincial People's Hospital (Approval No. 2025-02).
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants or their legal guardians prior to their inclusion in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hui Zhi, Chief Nurse, Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, No. 7 Weiwu Road, Jinshui District, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan Province, China. zhihuisry@163.com
Received: November 14, 2025 Revised: December 5, 2025 Accepted: December 17, 2025 Published online: January 15, 2026 Processing time: 59 Days and 2.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Gastrointestinal (GI) tumors are among the most prevalent malignancies, and surgical intervention remains a primary treatment modality. However, the complexity of GI surgery often leads to prolonged recovery and high postoperative complication rates, which threaten patient safety and functional outcomes. Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) principles have been shown to improve perioperative outcomes through evidence-based, multidisciplinary care pathways. Despite its widespread adoption, there is a paucity of research focusing specifically on optimizing ERAS-guided nursing processes in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) and evaluating its impact on perioperative safety in patients undergoing GI tumor surgery. This study aimed to investigate whether an ERAS-based PACU nursing protocol could enhance recovery, reduce complications, and improve patient safety in this surgical population.
AIM
To explore the impact of optimizing the recovery room nursing process based on ERAS on the perioperative safety of patients with GI tumors.
METHODS
A total of 260 patients with GI tumors who underwent elective surgeries under general anesthesia in our hospital from August 2023 to August 2025 and were then observed in the recovery unit (PACU) were selected. They were randomly divided into the observation group (the PACU nursing process was optimized based on ERAS) and the control group (the conventional PACU nursing process was adopted) by the random number grouping method, with 130 cases in each group. The time of gastric tube removal, urinary catheter removal, defecation time, hospital stay, time of leaving the room after tube removal, retention time in the recovery room, occurrence of complications, satisfaction and readmission rate were compared between the two groups after entering the room. Compare the occurrence of adverse events in the PACU nursing process between the two groups.
RESULTS
The time of gastric tube removal, urinary catheter removal, defecation time, hospital stay, retention time in the recovery room, total incidence of complications and readmission rate in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group, and the satisfaction rate was higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The occurrence of adverse events in the PACU nursing process in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
Optimizing the PACU nursing process based on ERAS can effectively accelerate the recovery process of patients undergoing GI tumor surgery, reduce adverse events, improve nursing satisfaction, and at the same time, lower the incidence of adverse events in the PACU nursing process, providing a more refined management basis for clinical practice.
Core Tip: This study innovatively optimized the post-anesthesia care unit nursing process based on the enhanced recovery after surgery concept. It demonstrates that this structured, evidence-based protocol significantly accelerates patient recovery, reduces complications and adverse events, and improves satisfaction in gastrointestinal tumor surgery, providing a refined management model for this critical perioperative phase.
