Could a new anesthetic speed up recovery after major cancer surgery?

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria 1.Age 18 to 75 years. 2.American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status class II or III. 3.Pathologically confirmed primary peritoneal surface malignancy or peritoneal metastasis from colorectal, gastric, ovarian, or appendiceal malignancy. 4.Scheduled for elective cytoreductive surgery with or without hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy under general anesthesia. 5.Expected surgical duration of at least 2 hours and planned postoperative admission to the intensive care unit. 6.Able to understand and independently complete the Chinese Quality of Recovery-15 questionnaire. 7.Willing to participate and able to provide written informed consent. Exclusion Criteria 1. Emergency surgery. 2. Uncontrolled bacterial, fungal, or viral infection requiring systemic anti-infective treatment within 14 days before surgery, or temperature of 38.0 °C or higher at post-consent eligibility confirmation with corresponding clinical, imaging, microbiological, or laboratory evidence. Perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis is not an exclusion. 3. Child-Pugh class C, total bilirubin greater than 3 times the upper limit of normal, or alanine or aspartate aminotransferase greater than 5 times the upper limit of normal. 4. Estimated glomerular filtration rate below 30 mL/min/1.73 m² or maintenance renal replacement therapy. 5. Known allergy to remimazolam, benzodiazepines, propofol, or their excipients, or a contraindication to either study drug. 6. Continuous or near-daily opioid use for at least 90 days before surgery, or benzodiazepine or Z-drug use on at least 5 days per week for at least 4 weeks. 7. Severe cognitive, psychiatric, hearing, speech, or language impairment that prevents understanding and independent completion of the QoR-15 after standardized explanation. 8. Pregnancy or breastfeeding. 9. A preoperative plan for continuous epidural analgesia or another continuous regional analgesic technique that is incompatible with the study's standardized intravenous analgesia pathway. 10. A specific clinical condition that, in the investigator's judgment, would make participation pose an unacceptable risk.