LAUSR

Background The Quality of Recovery-15 (QoR-15) and 12-item World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 scales are used as patient-reported outcome measures following surgery. We aimed to evaluate the association between immediate postoperative recovery in hospitals and mid-term disability-free survival (DFS) after discharge. Methods We conducted a prospective observational study at an university hospital and enrolled 260 patients aged ≥ 65-year-old with cancer who were undergoing elective major abdominal surgery. The QoR-15 and DFS were used for assessment. The association between poor postoperative recovery defined as a QoR-15 score < 90 on postoperative day (POD) 2 and DFS 3 months later was assessed using Fisher's exact test. The odds ratios of poor recovery on POD 2 to DFS were calculated using multiple logistic regression analysis with adjustment for prominent factors (age, preoperative frailty, preoperative DFS, surgical duration, and intraoperative blood loss volume). Results A total of 230 patients completed the follow-up at 3 months. On POD 2, 27.3% of patients (63/230) had poor recovery, and the number of patients who had DFS at 3 months after surgery was higher in patients without poor recovery (79.6%) than in patients with poor recovery (65.1%) (P = 0.026) on POD 2. The adjusted odds ratio of poor recovery on POD 2 to DFS at 3 months after surgery was 0.481 (95% confidence interval 0.233, 0.994). Conclusions Patients with poor recovery on POD 2 were more likely to have non-DFS at 3 months after abdominal surgery.