Enhanced recovery after surgery, sometimes called ERAS or fast track surgery, is a set of perioperative care protocols designed to help patients recover from surgery more quickly. Introduced by the Danish surgeon Henrik Kehlet in 1997, it combines measures such as thorough preoperative counseling, avoiding prolonged fasting, giving preoperative carbohydrate drinks, tailoring anesthesia to the patient, controlling intravenous fluids carefully, favoring non-opioid pain control, and encouraging patients to eat and move again as soon as possible after the operation. Hospitals that have adopted enhanced recovery protocols have reported average hospital stays shortened by about two and a half days and postoperative complications reduced by as much as half compared with traditional postoperative care.
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