Objective To explore the effect of traditional Chinese medicine foot bath at Youshi (the hour of the Rooster, i.e., 17:00-19:00) on fatigue in patients after laparoscopic radical resection of colorectal cancer. Methods A total of 80 patients who were scheduled for laparoscopic radical resection of colorectal cancer in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine from June 2022 to December 2024 were enrolled as research subjects and divided into a control group or an observation group by random number table method, with 40 cases in each group. Both groups received routine perioperative nursing for laparoscopic radical resection of colorectal cancer, based on which, the observation group received traditional Chinese medicine foot bath at Youshi once a day for 10 consecutive days starting from postoperative day 1. The Chinese-version Identity-Consequence Fatigue Scale-10 (ICFS-10) was adopted to assess the fatigue level of patients in the two groups at 1 day before operation, 3 days, 7 days, and 10 days after operation, respectively. Results There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in gender, age, tumor-node-metastasis stage, operation duration, intraoperative blood loss, or preoperative 1-day Chinese-version ICFS-10 total score (all P>0.05), indicating comparable baseline data. At postoperative day 3, day 7, and day 10, the Chinese-version ICFS-10 total scores of the observation group were lower than those of the control group (all P<0.05). Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed that the Chinese-version ICFS-10 total scores of both groups presented a downward trend over time, while the time effect, intergroup effect, and interaction effect were all statistically significant (all P<0.05). Conclusion Traditional Chinese medicine foot bath at Youshi can effectively relieve postoperative fatigue in patients after laparoscopic radical resection of colorectal cancer, which is worthy of clinical popularization and application.

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