Pediatric Colostomy Reversal: Traditional Care vs. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether using an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol helps children recover faster after colostomy reversal compared with traditional care.

The main question it aims to answer is:

Does ERAS lower the number of days children need to stay in the hospital after colostomy reversal compared with traditional care?

Researchers will compare two groups:

ERAS group - Children receive shorter pre-surgery fasting, no mechanical bowel preparation, early pain control, and early feeding after surgery.

Traditional care group - Children receive the usual long bowel preparation, overnight fasting, opioid pain medicine, and a longer period without food after surgery.

Participants will:

Be randomly assigned to either the ERAS or traditional care group

Have their colostomy surgically closed by experienced pediatric surgeons

Be monitored daily until they can eat a solid meal without vomiting; this marks the end of their hospital stay

The study will enroll 60 children ages 2-13 at Children's Hospital Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Researchers will measure length of hospital stay from surgery until discharge as the main outcome.