How does implementing an ERAS program in one speciality affect other specialities?

How does implementing an ERAS program in one speciality affect other specialities?

Labgaa I, Jarrar G, Joliat GR, Allemann P, Gander S, Blanc C, Hübner M, Demartines N. Implementation of Enhanced Recovery (ERAS) in Colorectal Surgery Has a PositiveImpact on Non-ERAS Liver Surgery Patients. World J Surg. 2016 May;40(5):1082-91.

What is already known:

The majority of ERAS studies only look at the outcomes of the individual speciality being examined. This looks at the impact on different specialities undergoing different operations but being looked after on the same post-operative ward.

What this paper adds:

In this retrospective Swiss paper, a colorectal ERAS programme was introduced (but not for liver resection patients), and outcomes of all patients compared before the introduction of an official liver ERAS programme. Overall complication rates did not change but major complications were significantly reduced. Length of stay was reduced by 2 days without increasing readmission rates.

It demonstrates that a successful ERAS program in one speciality can have unintended benefits in other unrelated specialities, presumably by a Hawthorne type effect.

Chris Jones, Guildford.