Tamsulosin with ERAS Protocols Reduces Rates of Urinary Retention after Colorectal Surgery

Erozkan K, Belkovsky M, Klingler M, et al. Does Prophylactic Tamsulosin Use with ERAS Protocol Provide Improvement after Colorectal Surgery? Am J Surg. 2024;241:116127.

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols emphasize the importance of early urinary catheter removal to reduce hospital length of stay and the risk of urinary tract infection (UTI).

Urinary retention is a significant complication of this practice. Because tamsulosin has been shown to be a safe and effective treatment for urinary retention in male and female patients, the retrospective cohort study reported in this article assessed the effects of inclusion of tamsulosin into a standard ERAS protocol.

Propensity score matching was used to compare patients (n = 2,072) who received (treatment group) or did not receive (control group) tamsulosin following colorectal surgery procedures. The primary outcomes of interest were hospital length of stay and rates of urinary retention.

Hospital length of stay was 5 days in the control group and 4.2 days in the treatment group. Urinary retention was documented in 9.2% of the control group compared to 4.7% of the treatment group.

The authors concluded that use of tamsulosin had significant benefits and recommended adding this agent to ERAS protocols.