2. Materials and methods
liver cancer
KIDNEY DISEASE, LIVER CANCER, RECRUITMENT, DYSFUNCTION, BLIND
Between March 2021 and December 2021, patients with liver cancer scheduled for operative therapy at Shandong Provincial Hospital in Jinan, Shandong, China were invited to participate in the study. The inclusion criteria for the study were as follows: (1) patients ranged in age above 18 years till 85 years old; (2) patient who confirmed that he have liver cancer by abdominal ultrasound, enhanced CT scan, and liver biopsy; (3) patients who were fit for surgery; (4) patients with no preoperative vital organ dysfunction (e.g., heart, brain, kidney disease); (5) patients with the absence of infectious comorbidities; (6) patients with informed consent provided by the patient and family; (7) patients with Child-Pugh grading of A to B. Participants who met any of the following criteria were excluded from the study: (1) patients who were unable to communicate with data collectors; (2) patients who failed to complete surgery due to various reasons; (3) patients who withdrew from the study.Patients were assigned numbers based on their order of admission and randomly allocated to either the intervention or control group. The allocation sequence was generated using blinded envelopes prepared by a caregiver with no knowledge of the trial. The envelopes contained an equal number of intervention and control protocols. Patients were assigned in the order of enrollment, and the researchers involved in recruitment, data collection, and analysis were blind to the allocation process. Sample size calculation was performed using PASS software 2020 (NCSS LLC., Kaysville, UT, USA).Patient flow chart including the number of screenings performed, the number of participants enrolled, the number of patients who dropped out, and final number of patients.