Effect of an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Program on Opioid Use and Patient-Reported Outcomes
Larissa A Meyer, Javier Lasala, Maria D Iniesta, Alpa M Nick, Mark F Munsell, Qiuling Shi, Xin Shelley Wang, Katherine E Cain, Karen H Lu, Pedro T Ramirez, Larissa A Meyer, Javier Lasala, Maria D Iniesta, Alpa M Nick, Mark F Munsell, Qiuling Shi, Xin Shelley Wang, Katherine E Cain, Karen H Lu, Pedro T Ramirez
Abstract
Objective: To investigate the effect of an enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) program on perioperative outcomes with an emphasis on opioid consumption and patient-reported outcomes in the immediate and extended postoperative periods.
Methods: We initiated our ERAS program as part of a quality improvement initiative in November 2014. We compared clinical outcomes among a cohort of 607 women undergoing open gynecologic surgery before or after implementation of ERAS. For 293 patients, patient-reported outcomes were compared using the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Ovarian Cancer.
Results: Median age was 58 years (range 18-85 years). Median length of stay decreased by 25% for patients in the ERAS pathway (P<.001). Overall, patients in the ERAS group had a 72% reduction in median opioid consumption and 16% were opioid-free during admission up to postoperative day 3 (P<.001). There was no difference in pain scores (P=.80). Patients on ERAS reported less fatigue (P=.01), interference with walking (P=.003), and total interference (composite score of physical and affective measures) during hospitalization (P=.008). After discharge, those on the ERAS pathway demonstrated a significantly shorter median time to return to no or mild fatigue (10 vs 30 days, P=.03), mild or no interference with walking (5 vs 13 days, P=.003), and mild to no total interference (3 vs 13 days, P=.02). There were no significant differences in complications, rates of readmission, or reoperation between the pre- and post-ERAS groups.
Conclusion: Implementation of an ERAS program was associated with significantly decreased opioid use after surgery and improvement in key patient-reported outcomes associated with functional recovery after surgery without compromising pain scores.
Conflict of interest statement
Financial Disclosure
Larissa Meyer has received research funding from AstraZeneca for unrelated research and has participated in an advisory board for Clovis Oncology. The other authors did not report any potential conflicts of interest.
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Source: PubMed