ArticleJournal of thoracic disease2021
Implementation of an enhanced recovery after thoracic surgery care pathway for thoracotomy patients-achieving better pain control with less (schedule II) opioid utilization.
Article in Journal of thoracic disease, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Parallel-bar versus cross-bar configurations in the Nuss procedure: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Article
- Optimizing Recovery After Thoracotomy: Evidence-Based Non-Opioid and Multimodal Analgesia - A Narrative Review.Current pain and headache reports · 2026Review
- A multidisciplinary comfort-enhanced recovery after surgery program improves perioperative patient-reported outcomes after lung cancer surgery: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Article
- Effect of ERAS-based refined nursing on postoperative pain management in lung cancer surgery patients.Frontiers in surgery · 2026Article
- Achieving and maintaining superior postoperative outcomes with an optimized recovery after thoracic surgery protocol.JTCVS open · 2025Article
- Article
- Beyond the Operating Room: A Narrative Review of Enhanced Recovery Strategies in Colorectal Surgery.Cureus · 2024Review
- Regular Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Use Increases Stress Fracture Risk in the General Population: A Retrospective Case-Control Study.Advances in orthopedics · 2024Article
- Continuous Erector Spinae Plane Block for Pain Management Following Thoracotomy for Aortic Coarctectomy.Journal of medical cases · 2024Article
- Article
- Opioid prescription guideline is important to enhanced recovery after thoracic surgery protocol.Journal of thoracic disease · 2023Article
- Achieving opioid-free discharge following robotic thoracic surgery: A single-institution experience.JTCVS open · 2023Article
- Effects of exposure to ambient air pollution on pulmonary function impairment in Korea: the 2007-2017 Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey.Epidemiology and health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEnhanced recovery after surgery protocols incorporate evidence-based practices of pre-, intra- and post-operative care to achieve the most optimal surgical outcome, safe on-time discharge, and surgical cost efficiency. Such protocols have been adapted for specialty-specific needs and are implemented by a variety of surgical disciplines including general thoracic surgery. This study aims to evaluate the impact of our enhanced recovery after thoracic surgery (ERATS) protocol on postoperative outcomes, pain, and opioid utilization following thoracotomy.
methodsThis is a retrospective analysis of patients undergoing elective resection of intrathoracic neoplasms via posterolateral thoracotomy between 1/1/2016 and 3/1/2020. Our enhanced recovery protocol, with a focus on multimodal pain management (opioid-sparing analgesics, infiltration of local anesthetics into intercostal spaces and surgical wounds, and elimination of thoracic epidural analgesia) was initiated on 2/1/2018. Demographics, clinicopathology data, subjective pain levels, peri-operative outcomes, in-hospital and post-discharge opioid utilization were obtained from the electronic medical record.
resultsA total of 98 patients (43 pre- and 55 post-protocol implementation) were included in this study. There was no difference in perioperative outcomes or percentage of opioid utilization between the two cohorts. The enhanced recovery group had significantly less acute pain. A significant reduction of in-hospital potent schedule II opioid use was noted following ERATS implementation [average MME: 10.5 (3.5-16.5) (ERATS)
conclusionsImplementation of an enhanced recovery protocol for thoracotomy patients is safe and associated with elimination of thoracic epidural analgesia, decreased postoperative pain, shorter hospitalization, drastic reduction of post-discharge opioid dispensed and decreased dependence on addiction-prone schedule II narcotics.
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