Fu XJ, Ren JX, Yuan LL, Hong Y. Application of enhanced recovery after surgery techniques in gastrointestinal surgery patients. World J Gastrointest Surg 2025; 17(9): 107605 [DOI: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i9.107605]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ying Hong, Department of Breast Surgery, Ningbo No. 2 Hospital, No. 41 Xibei Street, Haishu District, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China. yinghong424@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Surg. Sep 27, 2025; 17(9): 107605 Published online Sep 27, 2025. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i9.107605
Application of enhanced recovery after surgery techniques in gastrointestinal surgery patients
Xiao-Jun Fu, Jia-Xin Ren, Ling-Ling Yuan, Ying Hong
Xiao-Jun Fu, Department of Nursing, Ningbo No. 2 Hospital, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China
Jia-Xin Ren, Department of Liver Disease Center, Ningbo No. 2 Hospital, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China
Ling-Ling Yuan, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Ningbo No. 2 Hospital, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China
Ying Hong, Department of Breast Surgery, Ningbo No. 2 Hospital, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Fu XJ designed the experiments and conducted clinical data collection; Ren JX and Yuan LL performed postoperative follow-up and recorded the data; Fu XJ and Hong Y conducted the collation and statistical analysis, and wrote the original manuscript and revised the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Zhejiang Province Medical and Health Science and Technology Project, No. 2025KY1381.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Ningbo No. 2 Hospital (Approval No. PJ-NBEY-KY-2025-051-01).
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ying Hong, Department of Breast Surgery, Ningbo No. 2 Hospital, No. 41 Xibei Street, Haishu District, Ningbo 315000, Zhejiang Province, China. yinghong424@163.com
Received: May 20, 2025 Revised: June 20, 2025 Accepted: July 29, 2025 Published online: September 27, 2025 Processing time: 126 Days and 24 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Gastrointestinal surgery has disadvantages such as long operation time, extended hospitalization time, and slow postoperative recovery. However, the promotion and clinical application of the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) concept have considerably shortened the hospitalization time of gastrointestinal surgery patients and reduced reactions to surgical stress and the risk of medical complications and readmission. ERAS breaks the conventional operating mode in the field of surgery but introduces great challenges in practice.
AIM
To explore the application of ERAS in perioperative patients within the field of gastrointestinal surgery, with a particular focus on investigating the awareness of ERAS among healthcare professionals and the barriers to its implementation.
METHODS
A retrospective study of medical records of perioperative patients in the gastrointestinal surgery ward of Ningbo No. 2 Hospital from March 2020 to March 2022 was conducted. According to the different nursing modes adopted by patients during the perioperative period, patients were divided into the ERAS group and the control group. The postoperative outcomes of these groups such as the time to first ambulation, the time to first intake of food, and nursing satisfaction were compared. A self-developed questionnaire was used to assess the awareness of ERAS among healthcare professionals, along with a survey identifying barriers to its implementation.
RESULTS
Compared with the control group, the ERAS group demonstrated superior scores across various metrics, with the exception of the readmission rate due to complications within 1 month post-discharge (P < 0.05). Statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of educational background, years of service, and prior training in ERAS (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
ERAS significantly reduces the time to first ambulation and first food intake for patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. Furthermore, the awareness of ERAS among healthcare professionals correlates with their educational background, years of experience, and prior training. ERAS plays a crucial role in expediting patient recovery, improving nursing satisfaction, and optimizing healthcare resources.
Core Tip: Data of 115 gastrointestinal surgery patients were analyzed. Patients were divided into the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) group and the control group according to different nursing modes. The postoperative outcomes of these patients, such as recovery status and medical expense indicators, were compared. A self-designed questionnaire survey was used to evaluate the cognitive level of medical staff toward ERAS and the factors that hinder the implementation of ERAS. ERAS significantly shortened the time for patients to move out of bed for the first time and eat for the first time after surgery. The understanding of ERAS among medical stuff is related to their education level, work experience, and ERAS training experience.
