Opportunities and Challenges for the Next Phase of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery: A Review

• Published in: JAMA surgery Vol. 156; no. 8; pp. 775 - 784
• Main Authors: Ljungqvist, Olle, de Boer, Hans D, Balfour, Angie, Fawcett, William J, Lobo, Dileep N, Nelson, Gregg, Scott, Michael J, Wainwright, Thomas W, Demartines, Nicolas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Medical Association 01.08.2021
• Subjects: Clinical Protocols; Cost Savings; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Enhanced Recovery After Surgery; Humans; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Pandemics; Patient Care Team; Postoperative Complications - prevention & control; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Quality Improvement; SARS-CoV-2; Societies, Medical
• ISSN: 2168-6254; 2168-6262; 2168-6262
• DOI: 10.1001/jamasurg.2021.0586

IMPORTANCE: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is a global surgical quality improvement initiative now firmly entrenched within the field of perioperative care. Although ERAS is associated with significant clinical outcome improvements and cost savings in numerous surgical specialties, several opportunities and challenges deserve further discussion. OBSERVATIONS: Uptake and implementation of ERAS Society guidelines, together with ERAS-related research, have increased exponentially since the inception of the ERAS movement. Opportunities to further improve patient outcomes include addressing frailty, optimizing nutrition, prehabilitation, correcting preoperative anemia, and improving uptake of ERAS worldwide, including in low- and middle-income countries. Challenges facing enhanced recovery today include implementation, carbohydrate loading, reversal of neuromuscular blockade, and bowel preparation. The COVID-19 pandemic poses both a challenge and an opportunity for ERAS. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: To date, ERAS has achieved significant benefit for patients and health systems; however, improvements are still needed, particularly in the areas of patient optimization and systematic implementation. During this time of global crisis, the ERAS method of delivering care is required to take surgery and anesthesia to the next level and bring improvements in outcomes to both patients and health systems.