Clinical and demographic data
Clinic and pathological data collected included age, sex, and Charlson’s comorbidity index (CCI). Patient height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) were recorded from pre-operative assessment. All tumors were confirmed histologically and staged according to the 8th Edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM Classification. Intraoperative variables were tumor location, type of resection, duration of surgical procedure, blood loss, and need for conversion. ERAS protocol enrollment was registered and all patients followed the previously described pathway 6.
Post-operative complications were graded according to the Clavien-Dindo Classification and divided into minor (grade I-II) and major grade (grade III-V). When several adverse events occurred in the same patient, the highest grade was adopted. Primary outcome was the rate of infectious complications, which included anastomotic leak, pneumonia and surgical site infections7,8. Post-operative length of stay (LOS), 30-day readmission, and reoperation rates were registered together with post-operative mortality.