Enhanced recovery after surgery compliance and outcomes in an international multisurgical cohort

Enhanced recovery after surgery is associated with improved clinical outcomes and cost savings. Comparisons between studies and settings are challenging owing to variable data collection and definitions. The objective of this study was to explore variation in compliance with enhanced recovery after surgery and outcomes across surgery types and countries using a standardized database.

This international retrospective cohort study included adult patients who underwent surgical procedures (colorectal, gynaecological, pancreatic, hepatic, breast reconstruction, head and neck, urological, pulmonary), treated with enhanced recovery after surgery recorded in a standardized database between January 2017 and September 2021. The primary outcomes, length of hospital stay and complications, and the exposure variable, compliance with enhanced recovery after surgery, were captured from the standardized database. Patient demographic characteristics and surgical complexity were abstracted and considered as co-variates. Negative binomial and logistic regression analyses were used to model outcomes as a function of enhanced recovery after surgery compliance score.

The cohort included 12 134 patients (from Canada, the Netherlands, and Switzerland) who had median age of 63 years and underwent colorectal (59%) or gynaecological (19%) surgery. The median compliance with enhanced recovery after surgery differed by country (Canada 78.6%, the Netherlands 67.7%, Switzerland 80.0%). Each 1-unit increase in enhanced recovery after surgery compliance score corresponded to reduced length of hospital stay across all operations, by 0.94 (95% confidence interval (c.i.) 0.85 to 1.04) days in Canada, 1.03 (0.85 to 1.20) days in the Netherlands, and 1.55 (1.12 to 1.97) days in Switzerland. Each 1-unit increase in enhanced recovery after surgery compliance score corresponded to a 29 (95% c.i. 25 to 33)% reduction in odds of experiencing a severe complication across all operations in Canada, a 22 (14 to 31)% reduction in the Netherlands, and a 5 (2 to 8)% reduction in Switzerland.

Using a standardized database, this study confirmed that enhanced recovery after surgery compliance is associated with reduced length of hospital stay and complications in an international multisurgical cohort.