The Surgical clinics of North America
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Surg. Clin. North Am. · Dec 2018
ReviewEnhanced Recovery After Surgery and Its Effects on Patient Reported Outcomes.
Enhanced recovery programs were developed as a means for improving patient recovery after surgery with a multifaceted approach including several interventions in the perioperative period. There is now sufficient evidence in the literature that enhanced recovery programs have actually shortened hospital length of stay after colorectal surgery. Nonetheless, the impact of these successful programs on patient-reported outcomes like functional recovery and return to baseline quality of life is not known.
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Surg. Clin. North Am. · Dec 2018
ReviewEnhanced Recovery After Surgery: Implementation Strategies, Barriers and Facilitators.
Numerous reports have documented the effectiveness of Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) pathways in improving recovery and decreasing morbidity and length of stay. However, there is also increasing evidence that ERAS® guidelines are difficult to adopt and require the commitment of all members of the perioperative team. Multiple barriers related to limited hospital resources (financial, staffing, space restrictions, and education), active or passive resistance from members of the perioperative team, and lack of data and/or education have been identified. Thus, ERAS® guidelines require a tailored implementation strategy to increase adherence.
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Surg. Clin. North Am. · Dec 2018
ReviewEnhanced Recovery After Surgery and Multimodal Strategies for Analgesia.
Enhanced recovery after surgery is an evidence-based, multimodal approach to the perioperative care of a patient undergoing surgery. These pathways seek to attenuate the stress response to surgery facilitating postoperative recovery. ⋯ Traditional analgesic regimens for major surgery rely heavily on opioids to provide analgesia but can cause a wide range of serious side effects, delaying recovery. Enhanced recovery protocols should incorporate multimodal analgesic strategies that minimize opioid use and optimize analgesia.
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Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathways target specific areas within perioperative patient care in a multidisciplinary and evidence-based manner. Because of the subsequent positive outcomes associated with its use, ERAS has expanded to most surgical subspecialties, including hepatopancreatobiliary surgery. Although certain concepts are universal to all ERAS protocols, there are unique areas of emphasis pertaining to the hepatopancreatobiliary specialties, which will be highlighted throughout this article. In addition, some of the less frequently discussed aspects of enhanced recovery, including patient-reported outcomes, recovery assessment, cost, and auditing, will be addressed.
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Value in health care is defined as the best outcome that matters to the patient at the lowest cost. Therefore, a valuable intervention is one that either results in better outcomes at the same cost, the same outcomes at lower cost, or in the best-case scenario, better outcomes at lower cost. ⋯ ERPs do not increase overall costs, even when implementation and maintenance costs are considered. More research on patient-reported outcomes and other downstream effects of ERPs is required to fully characterize their true value.