Enhanced Recovery After Surgery

Surgical patients are increasingly frail and undergo procedures of substantial complexity. Maintaining the targets of effectiveness, safety, quality of care, and cost-effectiveness is challenging for healthcare workers, health systems, and insurers. Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programmes with minimally invasive surgery and multimodal analgesia have become the paradigm in contemporary surgical practice to reduce inflammation, stress response, and acute and chronic postoperative pain. Implementing these strategies has significantly reduced postoperative complications, improved functional recovery, shortened the length of hospital stay and health costs, and expedited return to normal life activities. These multimodal and multidisciplinary approaches have gradually improved outcomes after surgery and perioperative care. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go.