Outcomes Related to Cardiac Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Protocol

The objective of this study was to assess the quality of pain control and outcomes in patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) over a period of 96 hours preimplementation of a cardiac enhanced recovery after surgery (C-ERAS) protocol compared with postimplementation.

Single-center, retrospective cohort study.

Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital.

Patients ≥18 years of age who underwent CABG surgery and received perioperative pain management pre- and post-C-ERAS protocol implementation at admission to Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital.

A hospital C-ERAS protocol that included a multimodal analgesia approach to postoperative pain management.

The primary outcome was the amount of opioid used measured in morphine milligram equivalents (MME) within 96 hours postoperatively. A total of 146 charts were reviewed, with 133 included (66 pre-C-ERAS and 67 post-C-ERAS). There was a significant reduction in median MMEs 96 hours postoperatively post-C-ERAS (98 [52-135] v 211 [130-290], p < 0.001). Additionally, a significant reduction in median MMEs was observed post-C-ERAS before (65 [43-100] v 129 [95-165], p < 0.001) and after (10 [0-40] v 68 [21-141], p < 0.001) chest tube removal and for the entire prescription at discharge (0 [0-109] v 90 [0-210], p = 0.005).

Implementing a C-ERAS protocol within a CABG surgery patient population reduced the amount of MME.