Safety of an Enhanced Recovery Pathway for Patients Undergoing Open Hepatic Resection

Safety of an Enhanced Recovery Pathway for Patients Undergoing Open Hepatic Resection

Clark CJ, Ali SM, Zaydfudim V, Jacob AK, Nagorney DM. Safety of an Enhanced Recovery Pathway for Patients Undergoing Open Hepatic Resection. PLoS One. 2016 Mar 7;11(3):e0150782.

What is already known:

There are several published studies relating to ERAS for open liver resection and a recent meta-analysis (Zhao et. al. 2017) demonstrated reduced hospital length of stay, time to first flatus and complications following implementation of an ERAS programme.

What this paper adds:

This retrospective observational cohort study did not demonstrate improvements in hospital length of stay or complication rates as others looking into ERAS for open liver resection have done. The study suggested that complication rates and ICU admissions were lower, albeit not statistically significant. The primary conclusion was that ERP implementation was safe in open liver resection. The study was limited to a single-surgeon and did not monitor compliance to the ERP protocol.

Ben Morrison, Guildford.