The primary endpoints of the study included: mortality rate and incidence of postoperative complications, during primary hospitalization. Readmission rate to the hospital within 30 days of surgery was another primary endpoint. The secondary endpoints included time till the patient resumed drinking and consuming soft food, length of hospital stay, differences in hematocrit, creatinine concentrations and oxygen saturation in the first and third postoperative days and with discharge, and the number of patients receiving transfusion of blood and blood products.