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Low anterior resection syndrome (LARS) and quality of life after colectomy

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International Journal of Colorectal Disease Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Clinical experience shows complaints similar to LARS not only after rectal surgery, but even after other types of colorectal surgery. Our aim was to investigate the occurrence of LARS after several types of colorectal surgery and its impact on quality of life.

Methods

We included adult patients who underwent colorectal surgery at our centre from January 2016 until March 2019, regardless of indication. A questionnaire was sent evaluating LARS and quality of life.

Results

The questionnaire was answered by 119 patients. We noticed highest LARS-score after rectum surgery (26.1), but also surprisingly higher LARS-score after right-sided colectomy (21.0) compared to left-sided colectomy (16.4). We report lowest quality of life after rectal surgery, but higher quality of life in left colectomy compared to right colectomy.

Conclusion

LARS-score did not significantly correlate with type of procedure; however, higher LARS-scores were noted after right-sided colectomy compared to left-sided colectomy with similar impact on quality of life. We suggest CORS (colorectal resection syndrome) as a more suiting conceptual name instead of LARS to describe functional bowel complaints after colorectal surgery.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Juul Meurs. The data are not publicly available due to protection of study participant privacy.

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Acknowledgements

We like to thank Ms. Dorien Vermeulen for her support in patient recruiting and Ms. Brigitta Bal for her assistance in data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Abdominal, Pediatric and Reconstructive Surgery, Antwerp University Hospital, 2650, Edegem, Belgium

    Juul Meurs, Xavier Dumoulin, Nicolas De Sutter, Sylvie Van Den Broeck & Niels Komen

  2. Antwerp ReSURG, Anatomy and Research Centre (ASTARC), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, 2610, Antwerp, Belgium

    Juul Meurs, Xavier Dumoulin, Nicolas De Sutter, Yannick Smolders, Sylvie Van Den Broeck & Niels Komen

Authors
  1. Juul Meurs
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  2. Xavier Dumoulin
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  3. Nicolas De Sutter
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  5. Sylvie Van Den Broeck
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  6. Niels Komen
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Contributions

Data collection was performed by Juul Meurs, Xavier Dumoulin, Nicolas De Sutter and Yannick Smolders. Juul Meurs, Xavier Dumoulin and Nicolas De Sutter wrote the main manuscript text. Juul Meurs prepared tables and figures. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juul Meurs.

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Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Antwerp University Hospital (reference number B3002020000262).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Meurs, J., Dumoulin, X., De Sutter, N. et al. Low anterior resection syndrome (LARS) and quality of life after colectomy. Int J Colorectal Dis 38, 180 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00384-023-04471-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00384-023-04471-0

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