Background: Since the priority for patients with rectal tumors is a complete cure from the disease with free safety
margins for tumor removal and complete control of systemic disease, postoperative squeals, which may last for life, have
been overlooked. It was important to study the quality of life after surgery and chemoradiotherapy, especially the impact
on bowel functions, in order to improve them and give psychological support to the patient.
Patients and Methods: This is a single-center prospective cohort study held in the Surgery Department from December
2017 to December 2022. It included 120 patients who had surgery for rectal tumors. Only patients who filled out the low
anterior resection syndrome (LARS) score questionnaire, which was correlated to scores of the three subscales of EORTC
QLQ-C30 v3 (The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer-Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30
version3), were included.
Results: One hundred twenty patients were included, 40 patients had no LARS, 45 patients had minor LARS, and 35
patients had major LARS. LARS score was highly significantly higher with a P value less than 0.001 in patients with
old age, high BMI, low rectal and T4 tumors, open surgery, hand-sewn coloanal anastomosis, intersphincteric resection
surgery, total mesorectal excision, patients who had neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy.
Conclusion: The LARS questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate LARS among Egyptian patients. Risk factors
of discrimination can be found in those patients.