Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS)

ERAS aims to achieve early patient recovery after surgery, including prosthetic surgery.

To achieve this, the patient treatment pathway is optimised and numerous pre-, intra-, and postoperative measures are taken to decrease stress and accelerate recovery.

Before the operation

The patient and their close friends and relatives are informed of the nature of the operation scheduled and the expected course over the first few days and weeks after the operation.
This information helps decrease pre-operative stress and to get organised before the operation so the postoperative period is as comfortable as possible.

During the operation

During the operation, less invasive techniques are used and the anaesthetic techniques are optimised to reduce postoperative pain as much as possible and thus enable early mobilisation.

After the operation

The use of analgesics is optimised, opting for those with known efficacy and limited adverse effects.
With early mobilisation the patient will get out of bed on the day of the operation.
Drips and drains are removed as soon as possible to limit the discomfort and make it easier for the patient to move around.

ERAS is therefore based on improving the organisation of the treatment pathway to obtain the best clinical and functional outcome. This subsequently reduces patient length of stay, even though this is not the primary objective.