Browse the corpus

Since the advent of the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) initiative, enhanced recovery protocols exist for many surgical specialties. Many studies have shown the benefits of the ERAS-based approach in improving outcomes, minimizing complications, and reducing costs. Similar protocols were developed to potentially reap these benefits for cardiac surgery patients, now known as the Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERACS). This activity reviews the ERACS guidelines released by the ERAS cardiac society to help the management by an interprofessional team. Objectives: Determine the Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERACS) preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative guidelines. Identify the types of peripheral and neuraxial nerve blocks that can be used for pain control in cardiac surgery. Identify the cardiovascular risk in using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications such as celecoxib. Communicate the medications that can be incorporated by the interprofessional team in ERACS based protocols. Access free multiple choice questions on this topic.

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is a protocol-based multidisciplinary initiative to improve various outcomes. ERAS-based protocols typically cover the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative periods. They have led to many benefits, such as decreasing hospital length of stay, complications, readmission rates, and costs.[1] ERAS guidelines have existed for over a decade and are used in many surgical specialties, but recently, they have come to the forefront in cardiac surgery. In 2019, the ERAS Cardiac Society (ERAS CS) released its first consensus expert review guidelines for patients undergoing cardiac surgery, commonly referred to as the Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERACS) guidelines.[2] This topic discusses the main categories of the ERACS guidelines and findings from other studies that address ERAS-based strategies in cardiac surgery.

There are many challenges in implementing multifaceted enhanced recovery strategies such as ERACS. Cardiac surgical care always involves a multidisciplinary team effort, from the initial diagnosis to post-surgical recovery. As such, having standardized preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative protocols for all the team members is crucial in implementing a successful ERACS program. In addition, ERACS is still relatively new, and it is a while before data from large-scale randomized trials are available. To assess the efficacy, it is important to gather as much data as possible for all the relevant events and interventions before and after the ERACS implementation.[3]