Methods

All patients undergoing surgery for colo-rectal cancer from January 2004 to January 2008 at the University Hospitals in Linköping and Örebro were included in the study.
Exclusion criteria were: emergency opertions, laparoscopic-assisted colon and rectal resection and Stage 4 cancer (distant metastases) determined at the time of surgery.
Medical records of all included patients were obtained and data extracted according to a strict protocol by research nurses who were not involved in any other way with the study or data analysis.
All patients with colo-rectal cancer are followed up in a standardized way 1, 3 and 5 years after the operation. We obtained statistical information from the Swedish National Register for Deaths to verify the data on mortality.
Patients were divided into two groups, those receiving epidural analgesia (EDA group, n=562) perioperatively and those receiving
patient controlled analgesia (PCA group, n=93) as the primary method of analgesia.

Results

A statistically significant difference was found in the mortality following rectal but not colon cancer (see Table and Figure below). Mortality was 20% following colon cancer and 26% after rectal cancer.