Prospective evaluation of muscle strength and spine joint motility of patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer by open and laparoscopic methods.

The current trend in oncological surgery is to minimize its degree of invasiveness while maintaining a satisfactory survival rate. Surgical treatments within the large intestine are applied through traditional open surgery (OS) or laparoscopic surgery (LS).

The purpose of this nonrandomized, prospective, single-centered clinical examination was to compare motility within the spine joints and evaluate abdominal muscle strength of patients who underwent LS or OS for colorectal cancer.

Seventy-two patients were included in the study. Open surgery was applied to 35 patients and LS was applied to 37 patients. Motility range of the thoracic and lumbar spine, muscle strength of abdominal muscles, and pain evaluation by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of the studied group were evaluated twice (on the day of admission to the ward and on the fifth day after the surgery).

Both types of surgical intervention resulted in a decrease of the rectus abdominis and abdominal oblique muscle strength as well as a decrease of the range of thoracic and lumbar spine joint motility (p < 0.001). In the first research period, no statistically significant differences of tested parameters between the groups were found. In the second period, patients who underwent LS achieved better results within the extension of lumbar spine section (p = 0.0339), rectus abdominis strength (p = 0.0105), and left abdominal oblique muscles (p = 0.004).

Both types of surgical intervention (LS and OS) result in reduction of spine joint motility range and abdominal muscle strength. Laparoscopic surgery disrupts the spine joint motility and abdominal muscle strength to a lesser extent than OS.