A postsurgical recovery program featuring early feeding and multimodal pain management hastened the return of bowel function and shortened hospital stay by 2 days for patients undergoing complex ventral hernia repair.
Despite leaving the hospital sooner, however, patients were 75% less likely to be readmitted within 90 days, Dr. Arnab Majumder and his colleagues wrote in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (2016 Jun;222:1106-15). Most of those who did return had wound complications, a stark contrast to readmissions among patients who didn’t experience the enhanced recovery program. Among that group, 75% of the readmissions were caused by bowel obstruction/ileus, deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, and urinary tract infections – all of them “problems [that] could be related to prolonged hospitalizations,” said Dr. Majumder of the University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland.
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The investigators created an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) pathway specifically for patients undergoing complex ventral hernia repairs using transversus abdominis release and sublay synthetic mesh placement. The patients “present formidable challenges to the surgeon, not only in the operating room but also during perioperative management,” the authors noted.
The ERAS the team preemptively addressed patient issues in the preoperative, intra- and perioperative, and postoperative periods. They compared the outcomes of 100 patients treated with the protocol to those in a control group of 100 who underwent the same surgery before the protocol was implemented. The main outcomes measures were time to diet advancement, time to return of bowel function, time to oral narcotics, length of stay, and 90-day readmissions.
The ERAS begins with preoperative optimization. This consists of weight loss, smoking cessation, and managing diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea. No surgery occurs until the HbA1c is less than 8 and patients have been tobacco free for at least 1 month.
All patients receive an arginine and omega-3 supplement thrice daily for 5 days before surgery. The night before surgery, they have a nasal swab screen for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and decolonization with mupirocin ointment and a chlorhexidine bath.
Preoperatively, they receive 5,000 units of unfractionated heparin, along with sequential compression devices for deep vein thrombosis protection. Use of both continue postoperatively, with heparin given every 8 hours until the patient is ambulatory.
Those without a history of narcotic use receive a preoperative dose of alvimopan. Everyone also receives oral gabapentin and preoperative antibiotics.
Intraoperatively, intravenous fluids are given judiciously to minimize bowel edema and decrease the risk of respiratory side effects. The surgeon also employs a transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block with liposomal bupivacaine.
There is a multimodal pain management program, which includes intravenous hydromorphone by patient-controlled anesthesia pump and oral gabapentin three times daily. Patients switch to oral analgesics on postoperative day 2. These consist of acetaminophen and NSAIDs on an alternating schedule. Intravenous diazepam can be added as an antispasmodic. Alvimopan is continued twice daily until first bowel movement or hospital discharge.
Clear liquids are limited to 250 mL/8 hours on postoperative day 1, along with a clear protein drink. By day 2, patients are advanced to unrestricted volumes of clear liquids, and on day 3, to a regular solid diet. At that point, the clear protein drink is switched for a regular protein drink (Boost Plus).
Patients who vomit or require a nasogastric tube for decompression, and those with severe persistent nausea are made NPO, but can resume diet when these symptoms improve. Those with mild-moderate nausea receive intravenous ondansetron and are allowed to self-limit oral intake.
Patients were a mean of 57 years old with a mean body mass index of about 33 kg/m2. The hernia was recurrent for about 60% of each group, with a mean area of about 300 cm2, and a mean width of 14 cm. The mean mesh size was about 1,000 cm2. The mean operative time was significantly shorter in the control group: 197 vs. 245 minutes.
Diet was advanced significantly more quickly in the ERAS group than the control group: 1 vs. 2 days on a liquid diet and 3 vs. 4.8 days to regular diet. Emesis after diet advancement was similar (4% for ERAS and 5% for control).
Compared with the control group, the ERAS group experienced significantly shorter average times to flatus (3.1 vs. 3.9 days), bowel movement (3.6 vs. 5.2 days), and reaching GI-3 status (3.4 vs. 4.8 days). Those in the ERAS group switched to oral narcotics sooner (2.2 vs. 3.6 days) also.
The average length of stay was significantly lower in ERAS group as well (4 vs. 6 days). About 18% of those in the ERAS group had a stay of less than 3 days, compared with 2% of the control group.