Purpose. Postoperative ileus has been considered a temporary disturbancein gastric and bowel motility following abdominal surgery. This studyaimed to assess the effects of gum chewing after laparoscopic colorectalsurgery.Methods. Patients were randomized into two groups: the experimentalgroup (gum chewing), which chewed gum three times within 3 days aftersurgery (gum was chewed continuously for 15 min each time until the firstpassage of flatus), and the control group, which received usual care withoutusing gum chewing.Results. After randomization, 30 patients (15 no gum; 15 gum) were includedin our analysis. There was no significant difference in time to flatus(62.6 vs. 90.3 h, p = 0.07), postoperative pain scores (4.3 vs. 5.5, p =0.201) and the length of operative hospital stay (11.8 vs. 14.4 days, p =0.189) between patients assigned to the gum and no gum groups. However,time to remove the nasogastric tube (49.8 vs. 75.4 h, p = 0.015) weresignificant.Conclusion. Gum chewing changed the length of operative hospital stayafter laparoscopic colorectal surgery. However, gum chewing followinglaparoscopy surgery did not demonstrate an effect on recovery of bowelfunction.