OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a prior diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with longer postoperative length of stay (LOS) and higher complication rates among patients who underwent colorectal surgery under an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol in a single hospital setting.

METHODOLOGY: In a cross-sectional study, we grouped 157 consecutive patients who underwent elective colorectal surgery under ERAS protocol according to preoperative DM status. Patient data was abstracted from the ERAS Interactive Audit Database from January 2016 to December 2017. We compared LOS between groups. Secondary outcomes were postoperative complications, reoperations, pneumonia and wound infection. Categorical and continuous variables were analyzed with Fisher's exact test and student's t-test, respectively, using Stata/SE version 13 with a significance level of p=0.05.

RESULTS: One hundred thirteen subjects did not have diabetes (no T2DM) while 44 patients had type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Mean postoperative length of hospital stay was 6.4±5.1 days for the no T2DM group versus 5.8±3.8 in the T2DM group (p=0.476). Complications, reoperation rate, pneumonia and wound infection did not differ between groups. Among subjects in the T2DM group, LOS did not differ between patients with preoperative HbA1c ?7.0% and those with HbA1c >7.0% (5.7±3.7 versus 6.1±4.2 days, p=0.748).

CONCLUSION: Among patients who underwent colorectal surgery under ERAS protocol, a prior diagnosis of diabetes was not associated with longer LOS or more complications. A preoperative HbA1c of <7% did not affect length of stay in ERAS among patients with T2DM.