Abstract
Colorectal surgery patients frequently suffer from postoperative complications. Patients
with complications have been shown to be at higher risk for mortality, poor oncologic
outcomes, additional complications, and worse quality of life. Complications are increasingly
recognized as markers of quality of care with more use of risk-adjusted national surgical
databases and increasing transparency in health care. Quality improvement work in
colorectal surgery has identified methods to decrease complication rates and improve
outcomes in this patient population. Future work will continue to identify best practices
and standardized ways to measure quality of care.
Keywords
postoperative complications - surgical quality - prehabilitation
