Compliance With Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Protocol (ERAS) in Surgical Patients

Overview

The concept of "enhanced recovery" was introduced by European anesthesiologists and surgeons who challenged traditional clinical practices involved in peri-operative care in 1990s. The goal of enhanced recovery programs (ERP) is to maintain normal physiology thereby decreasing complications. It focuses on peri-operative optimization of patient care. It was originally created for open colorectal surgeries but now has shown benefit in various surgical specialities including thoracic surgery, vascular surgery, hepatobiliary as well as gynecological surgery. The successful implementation of structured ERAS program requires an ERAS protocol, audit system and a multidisciplinary team. The investigators will evaluate the effect of compliance with the protocol and outcomes such as length of stay, readmissions, morbidity and mortality.

After approval by the Institutional Review Board, the investigators plan to retrospectively study gynecological patients who underwent ERAS protocol at Augusta University Medical Center between January 2017 and February 2019. This is a retrospective observational study to evaluate the outcomes of patients who had ERAS protocol during their surgery. Demographic and outcome variables will be obtained from the institutional health documentation system. The investigators will collect demographic variables (age, ASA status), morphometric measurements (body mass index), time from enrollment to ERAS protocol, hospitalization length of stay, and readmission rate. The investigators will also record the documentation of the ERAS protocol interventions against the ERAS protocol approved by the institution. The investigators will assess the effect of the degree of compliance on outcome variables.

Conditions