Updates in surgery
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Observational Study
Enhanced recovery after surgery in gastric cancer: which are the main achievements from the Italian experience?
In the last years, the concept of 'enhanced recovery after surgery' (ERAS) has become a routine in the perioperative care of patients undergoing colorectal resection. The application of ERAS programs in gastric surgery had a more difficult penetration into clinical practice, mainly for the introduction of radical changes in the traditional postoperative management. The aim of the study was to analyze the rate of compliance to a standardized ERAS protocol in different Italian centers and evaluate the results in terms of postoperative outcomes. ⋯ Postoperative complications occurred in 35.5% of patients, mortality was 0.7%. Median length of hospital stay was 8 days (range 4-72) and the readmission rate was 6.3%. There is a growing attention on the implementation of ERAS protocol for gastric cancer surgery, but several elements of this protocol are still not routinely adopted, among them items regarding nutritional care.