Objective   To examine the effect of perioperative precision nursing care of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) on the postoperative recovery, stress response, and psychological state of colorectal cancer patients.

  Methods  A total of 100 patients undergoing elective laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group, with 50 patients in each group. The experimental group received systematic, standardized, and specialized precision nursing care in three stages, the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative stages, while the control group received routine nursing care. The main outcome indicators compared between the two groups included the time of the first postoperative passage of flatus and stool, ambulation, liquid-diet meal, postoperative length-of-stay, and C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMR-IR) measured 1 day before surgery and 1, 3, and 5 days after surgery. Secondary outcome indicators included the anxiety and depression levels of patients measured upon admission to the hospital and 48 h after surgery by Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-rating Sepression Scale (SDS), respectively.

  Results  In the experimental group, the time of the first postoperative passage of flatus and stool, ambulation, and liquid-diet meal and the postoperative length-of-stay were all lower than those in the control group. The postoperative CRP and IL-6 levels of the two groups were significantly higher than the preoperative levels, and the control group had higher CRP and IL-6 levels than the experimental group did, all showing significant difference (P<0.05). The two groups presented different stress states at different points of time after surgery, with the CRP and IL-6 levels reaching the highest 3 days after surgery and then dropping to some degree afterwards. The HOMR-IR of the patients in the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group and the difference was significant at both 1 d and 3 d after surgery (P<0.05). Comparison of the difference in the anxiety and the depression scores in the two groups showed significant difference (P<0.05). Before discharge, patient satisfaction of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05).

  Conclusion  The implementation of ERAS precision nursing care can effectively promote the postoperative recovery of colorectal cancer patients, reduce the perioperative stress response, alleviate anxiety and depression, improve patient satisfaction, and hence should be extensively applied in clinical practice.