BackgroundEsketamine has higher potency, stronger receptor affinity, a stronger analgesic effect, a higher in vivo clearance rate, and a lower incidence of adverse reactions when compared to ketamine. However, there have been few ketamine studies to assess patient-centered, overall recovery outcomes from the perspective of patients with colorectal cancer.MethodsThis was a prospective, randomized controlled trial. Ninety-two patients undergoing laparoscopic radical resection of colorectal cancer were randomly assigned to either the esketamine (K group) or non-eskatamine (C group) group. After anesthesia induction, a loading dose of 0.25 mg/kg was administered, followed by continuous infusion at a rate of 0.12 mg.kg-1.h-1until closure of surgical incisions in the K group. In the C group, an equivalent volume of normal saline was infused. The primary outcome was quality of recovery at 24 h after surgery, as measured by the Quality of Recovery-15 (QoR-15) scale. The QoR-15 was evaluated at three timepoints: before (Tbefore), 24 h (T24h) and 72 h (T72h) after surgery.Main resultsA total of 88 patients completed this study. The total QoR-15 scores in K group (n = 45) were higher than in the C group (n = 43) at 24 h: 112.33 ± 8.79 vs. 103.93 ± 9.03 (P= 0.000) and at 72 h: 118.73 ± 7.82 vs. 114.79 ± 7.98 (P= 0.022). However, the differences between the two groups only had clinical significance at 24 h after surgery. Among the five dimensions of the QoR-15, physical comfort (P= 0.003), emotional state (P= 0.000), and physical independence (P= 0.000) were significantly higher at 24 h in the K group, and physical comfort (P= 0.048) was higher at 72 h in the K group.ConclusionsThis study found that intraoperative intravenous low-dose esketamine could improve the early postoperative quality of recovery in patients undergoing laparoscopic radical resection of colorectal cancer from the perspective of patients.