Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is a paradigm shift in perioperative care, resulting in substantial improvements in clinical outcomes and cost savings.Enhanced Recovery After Surgery is a multimodal, multidisciplinary approach to the care of the surgical patient. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery process implementation involves a team consisting of surgeons, anesthetists, an ERAS coordinator (often a nurse or a physician assistant), and staff from units that care for the surgical patient. The care protocol is based on published evidence. The ERAS Society, an international nonprofit professional society that promotes, develops, and implements ERAS programs, publishes updated guidelines for many operations, such as evidence-based modern care changes from overnight fasting to carbohydrate drinks 2 hours before surgery, minimally invasive approaches instead of large incisions, management of fluids to seek balance rather than large volumes of intravenous fluids, avoidance of or early removal of drains and tubes, early mobilization, and serving of drinks and food the day of the operation. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery protocols have resulted in shorter length of hospital stay by 30% to 50% and similar reductions in complications, while readmissions and costs are reduced. The elements of the protocol reduce the stress of the operation to retain anabolic homeostasis. The ERAS Society conducts structured implementation programs that are currently in use in more than 20 countries. Local ERAS teams from hospitals are trained to implement ERAS processes. Audit of process compliance and patient outcomes are important features. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery started mainly with colorectal surgery but has been shown to improve outcomes in almost all major surgical specialties.Enhanced Recovery After Surgery is an evidence-based care improvement process for surgical patients. Implementation of ERAS programs results in major improvements in clinical outcomes and cost, making ERAS an important example of value-based care applied to surgery.

Current clinical dogma favors universal inpatient admission after colorectal resection particularly in the presence of an anastomosis.

The GOSAFE study evaluates risk factors for failing to achieve good quality of life (QoL) and functional recovery (FR) in older patients undergoing surgery for colon and rectal cancer.

Colorectal surgery is associated with substantial morbidity rates and a lowered functional capacity. Optimization of the patient's condition in the weeks prior to surgery may attenuate these unfavorable sequelae.To determine whether multimodal prehabilitation before colorectal cancer surgery can reduce postoperative complications and enhance functional recovery.The PREHAB randomized clinical trial was an international, multicenter trial conducted in teaching hospitals with implemented enhanced recovery after surgery programs. Adult patients with nonmetastasized colorectal cancer were assessed for eligibility and randomized to either prehabilitation or standard care. Both arms received standard perioperative care. Patients were enrolled from June 2017 to December 2020, and follow-up was completed in December 2021. However, this trial was prematurely stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The 4-week in-hospital supervised multimodal prehabilitation program consisted of a high-intensity exercise program 3 times per week, a nutritional intervention, psychological support, and a smoking cessation program when needed.Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI) score, number of patients with CCI score more than 20, and improved walking capacity expressed as the 6-minute walking distance 4 weeks postoperatively.In the intention-to-treat population of 251 participants (median [IQR] age, 69 [60-76] years; 138 [55%] male), 206 (82%) had tumors located in the colon and 234 (93%) underwent laparoscopic- or robotic-assisted surgery. The number of severe complications (CCI score >20) was significantly lower favoring prehabilitation compared with standard care (21 of 123 [17.1%] vs 38 of 128 [29.7%]; odds ratio, 0.47 [95% CI, 0.26-0.87]; P = .02). Participants in prehabilitation encountered fewer medical complications (eg, respiratory) compared with participants receiving standard care (19 of 123 [15.4%] vs 35 of 128 [27.3%]; odds ratio, 0.48 [95% CI, 0.26-0.89]; P = .02). Four weeks after surgery, 6-minute walking distance did not differ significantly between groups when compared with baseline (mean difference prehabilitation vs standard care 15.6 m [95% CI, -1.4 to 32.6]; P = .07). Secondary parameters of functional capacity in the postoperative period generally favored prehabilitation compared with standard care.This PREHAB trial demonstrates the benefit of a multimodal prehabilitation program before colorectal cancer surgery as reflected by fewer severe and medical complications postoperatively and an optimized postoperative recovery compared with standard care.trialregister.nl Identifier: NTR5947.

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) care has been reported to be associated with improvements in outcomes after colorectal surgery compared with traditional care.To determine the association between ERAS protocols and outcomes in patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery.The Postoperative Outcomes Within Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Protocol (POWER) Study is a multicenter, prospective cohort study of 2084 consecutive adults scheduled for elective colorectal surgery who received or did not receive care in a self-declared ERAS center. Patients were recruited from 80 Spanish centers between September 15 and December 15, 2017. All patients included in this analysis had 1 month of follow-up.Colorectal surgery and perioperative management were the exposures. Twenty-two individual ERAS items were assessed in all patients, regardless of whether they were included in an established ERAS protocol.The primary study outcome was moderate to severe postoperative complications within 30 days after surgery. Secondary outcomes included ERAS adherence, mortality, readmissions, reoperation rates, and hospital length of stay.Between September 15 and December 15, 2017, 2084 patients were included in the study. Of these, 1286 individuals (61.7%) were men; mean age was 68 years (interquartile range [IQR], 59-77). A total of 879 patients (42.2%) presented with postoperative complications and 566 patients (27.2%) developed moderate to severe complications. The number of patients with moderate or severe complications was lower in the ERAS group (25.2% vs 30.3%; odds ratio [OR], 0.77; 95% CI, 0.63-0.94; P = .01). The overall rate of adherence to the ERAS protocol was 63.6% (IQR, 54.5%-77.3%), and the rate for patients from hospitals self-declared as ERAS was 72.7% (IQR, 59.1%-81.8%) vs non-ERAS institutions, which was 59.1% (IQR, 50.0%-63.6%; P < .001). Adherence quartiles among patients receiving the highest and lowest ERAS components showed that the patients with the highest adherence rates had fewer moderate to severe complications (OR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.25-0.46; P < .001), overall complications (OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.26-0.43; P < .001), and mortality (OR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.07-0.97; P = .06) compared with those who had the lowest adherence rates.An increase in ERAS adherence appears to be associated with a decrease in postoperative complications.

Despite consensus supporting enhanced recovery programs, their full implementation in such a context is difficult due to conventional practices within various groups of professionals. The goal of the EUropean PErioperative MEdical Networking (EUPEMEN) project was to bring together the expertise and experience of national clinical professionals who have previously helped deliver major change programs in their countries and to use them to spread enhanced recovery after surgery protocols (ERAS) in Europe. The specific aim of this study is to present and discuss the key points of the proposed recommendations for colorectal surgery.

Guidelines on clinical nutrition recommend the use of appropriate nutritional support therapy for surgical cancer patients at risk of malnutrition both during hospital care and following discharge from the hospital. However, previous studies regarding nutritional interventions have mainly focused on patients during their hospital stay; there is limited evidence supporting the recommendation of nutritional interventions for post-discharge patients after cancer surgery, particularly those who underwent gastrointestinal cancer surgery and at high risk of malnutrition. To clearly address this issue, we designed and conducted two independent studies on two different groups of post-discharge patients at nutritional risk after gastrointestinal cancer surgery. The present study aimed to assess the impact of oral nutritional supplements (ONS) in post-discharge patients at nutritional risk following colorectal cancer surgery. Meanwhile, the sister study on the use of ONS in post-discharge patients following gastric cancer surgery will be reported separately.Between January 2017 and June 2019, post-discharge patients following colorectal cancer surgery in our institution were randomised to receive either dietary advice alone (control group) or dietary advice in combination with ONS (ONS group) for three months if they were at nutritional risk based on the tool of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002. The primary endpoints were nutritional outcomes and sarcopenia prevalence. The secondary endpoints were 90-day readmission rate, chemotherapy tolerance, and quality of life (QoL).Of the 232 eligible patients, 212 (107 in the control group and 105 in the ONS group) completed the trial. Their data were then analyzed. The mean ONS intake was 410 mL every day. By the three-month intervention, the skeletal muscle index in the ONS group was significantly higher than that in the control group (39.75 ± 5.83 vs 38.01 ± 6.18 cm/m, P = 0.037), but no significant differences between the two groups were noted in weight, weight loss, body mass index, serum albumin and hemoglobin (P > 0.05). In addition, the ONS group had a significantly lower sarcopenia prevalence (28.6% vs 42.1%, P = 0.040). No significant difference between the two groups was found in the 90-day readmission rate (P > 0.05). The number of patients undergoing postoperative chemotherapy in the two groups was similar, but chemotherapy modifications, such as delay, dose reduction, or termination, were significantly reduced in the ONS group (21.2% vs 36.8%, P=0.024). However, ONS had no significant effect on QoL (P > 0.05).In post-discharge patients at nutritional risk following colorectal cancer surgery, the use of ONS may reduce skeletal muscle loss and sarcopenia prevalence, as well as improve chemotherapy tolerance, compared with dietary advice alone. These findings underline the importance of ONS treatment in post-discharge patients at nutritional risk following colorectal cancer surgery.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.