In order to reduce morbidity, and to have a faster recovery and shortened hospital stay after elective colorectal surgery, peri-operative care has been slowly evolving. During the past decade, various multimodal recovery programs conducted by different authorities, such as “ Enhanced Recovery After Surgery” (ERAS), “Enhanced Recovery Program”, “Accelerated Postoperative Recovery Program”, “Multimodal Optimization of Surgical Care” or “Fast Track” (FT), etc, were established to decrease the surgical stress response, accelerate recovery, decrease complications, shorten the hospital stay, and reduce hospital costs, without compromising patient safety. Although some variation exists, the major elements of these programs are about the same: optimal pain relief, stress reduction with regional anesthesia/analgesia, early enteral nutrition, and early mobilization. Many of these elements are based on evidences derived from randomized clinical trials or systematic meta-analysis.