Prehabilitation and enhanced recovery after surgery

A paradigm shift from traditional surgical care, enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is a multidisciplinary, multimodal bundle of care elements designed to minimize surgical stress and thereby hasten postoperative recovery. While each element in an ERAS bundle is evidence based, none in isolation has a particularly or universally significant effect compared to the combined beneficial effect of the bundle, and of the team-building, silo-dismantling, culture-changing process that is required to build, implement, and audit robust ERAS program, in which the combined effect becomes not merely additive, but synergistic. This chapter reviews ERAS background, provides practical advice regarding the key ERAS elements, and reviews outcomes associated with ERAS.