Strengths and limitations
Even though our findings indicate a tendency to improvement in the
postoperative management of patients undergoing CD when UC is not used
or is removed early, the study is not without limitations. Data was
collected prospectively in the setting of the implementation of a best
practice protocol, so there was no randomization of the patients. Even
though early removal of the UC was encouraged, some patients had the UC
removed later than 6 h after surgery. his group of patients was
considerably smaller than the others, which is also a limitation when
comparing it to the other groups.It is important to mention in this
regard that the groups had modest differences as stated above and as
shown in Table 1. Regarding morphine use, anaesthesiologists delivering
care to CD patients were the ones to decide whether or not they
administered this drug , as well as the dosage. Taking all this into
consideration, our results should be interpreted as exploratory
findings, which might promote further studies and protocols enhancing
early mobilization and discharge in those patients in which UC can be
avoided, as well as the early removal in patients who require a UC.