Report on the 7th ERAS® World Congress

The 7^th ERAS® Society World Congress was held at The Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool, UK, from 1 – 3 May 2019. It was held jointly with its UK Chapter, ERAS UK, as their 9^th ERAS® UK Conference.

Enjoying the iconic city of Liverpool, the Congress was very successful in attracting 523 registrations  worldwide, with the majority (over 60%) from Europe, but with significant numbers from Asia (20%) and North America (12%) as shown in the table below.

There were large numbers of local (UK) delegates and in addition it was encouraging to see that both China and United States supporting the congress in large numbers as well several other European Countries as shown in the table below.

Whilst not quite surpassing last year’s record numbers in Stockholm (585) the figures are still much higher than other previous Congresses in Lyon in 2017 (393), Lisbon in 2016 (389) and  Washington  in 2015 (492) – which was a combined meeting with EBPOM and ASER. These figures reflect a sustained interest for ERAS worldwide.

We also had 104 posters presentations (102 last year) with 6 best abstracts selected for oral presentation and 7 rapid fire abstracts accepted. All are published in Clinical Nutrition ESPEN 2019;31:1-146 with a link to the abstracts published here.

The Pre-congress programme (Wednesday 1^st May) has now become a packed day with four parallel streams running.  The ever-popular ERAS® half day course where delegates learnt about the relevant pathophysiology and perspectives from different healthcare professionals – surgeon, anaesthetist  and nursing experts. However in addition there were other speciality-specific sessions with a full day 2nd ERAS® Society World Congress in paediatrics and low income countries, as well as sessions on cardiac, orthopaedics, urology, gynaecology and nursing & AHP.

The Scientific Programme began on Thursday 2^nd May and following addresses by both the ERAS® Chairman Professor Olle Ljungqvist progress on the new ERAS® Society Textbook was presented. Professor Nader Francis (Congress President), delivered the Presidential Address “The Global Perspective of Recovery”.  

Much of the day focussed on improving outcomes, an interactive session on the post anaesthetic care unit, inflammation, pain, and cutting edge advances with an undoubted highlight  being The Henrik Kehlet lecture, brilliantly delivered by Professor David Jayne from Leeds, UK, entitled “Does New Technology Improve Surgical Outcomes?” In addition, it is uplifting to see high ongoing high quality new research, with presentations of the best six abstracts.

The final day, Friday 3^rd May, focussed on patient partnership,  “where are the problems? ” and current dilemmas. A popular session was “whose patient is it anyway” with two surgeons and two anaesthetists debating with a blend of intellect and humour a topical issue. The prestigious Ken Fearon Lecture entitled “Reducing Variation to Improve Outcome” given by Professor Rupert Pearse from London, UK, was a fantastic analysis of the importance of consistent care. Six excellent rapid-fire presentations were also delivered.

The congress ended with presentation of prizes as follows:

Rapid fire prize (€200):
OR09 – R Pickens – Vertical Compliance: A novel method of reporting patient specific ERAS compliance for real-time risk assessment

Best oral presentations:

First prize (€500)

OR02 – K Rollins Goal directed fluid therapy using trans oesophageal Doppler in patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Second prize (€300)

OR01 – L Halliday Adherence to exercise during rehabilitation: The relationship with changes in fitness and post-operative pneumonia.

As always it is good to see familiar faces and meet new delegates. Of particular note is the fusion of new ideas, together with the friendliness and informality that enabled younger members to have a relaxed chat to some of our very well-known delegates.

Full details of the Congress and our sponsors can be found  here.  Also, follow us on twitter @ErasSociety, we have increased our followers by about 1000 from last year to nearly 2700. We had very good twitter activity with over 200 individuals sending over 1000 tweets and using #ERAS2019, in all reaching over a quarter of a million people! Finally keep an eye for photos from the Congress which will be posted on the website the coming months.

We offer our sincere thanks to all involved in the delivery of an outstanding meeting, in particular the Congress President Nader Francis and his organising Committee, as well as our organising committee, the speciality group chairs and the ERAS® executive committee. In addition, many thanks go to our sponsors and our excellent congress planers, MCI Suisse.

Already we are planning the 8^th ERAS® World Congress and will update you all when the details are finalised. We can then very much look forward to welcoming you and your teams!

Professor  WJ Fawcett

May 2019