Historical inspiration and practical thinking of enhanced recovery after surgery

Abstract

In recent years, enhance recovery after (ERAS) has attracted many attentions in the surgical field. ERAS is a new model of perioperative management, in which more attention is paid to patients′ perception to the medical treatment. This new medical model is different from the past one which is completely led by medical practitioners, thus full of humanistic concerns and rationality. With the premise of medical safety guaranteed, a series of measures, especially evidence-based medical interventions, are implemented to optimize the perioperative management and promote the recovery of patients in ERAS. A certain level of economic and social benefit will be gained with this process. The development history of ERAS was systemically reviewed in current editorial to help the readers to get a better understanding of the origin and evolving process of ERAS. It tracked back to the 1960s when reductions and one guarantee and removal of two tubes and one prohibition were proposed as a revolutional perioperative management mode by the surgical community in our country. The goals pursued and measures implemented by our surgical predecessors back in those days were astonishingly similar to those in today′s ERAS practice. They actually enlightened the initiation of ERAS in China. While ERAS is widely implemented nowadays, this new medical model should be objectively evaluated. A patient-centered medical system should be built, and ERAS should be promoted from an academic perspective, through which the ultimate goal of surgery without danger and pain could be finally achieved. Key words: Treatment outcome; Enhanced recovery after surgery; Fast track surgery; Perioperative management