Implementation of an enhanced recovery after thoracic surgery care pathway for thoracotomy patients—achieving better pain control with less (schedule II) opioid utilization

Journal of Thoracic Disease

article

Karishma Kodia¹  Joy A. Stephens-McDonnough¹  Ahmed Alnajar¹  Nestor R. Villamizar¹  Dao M. Nguyen¹ 

[1] Thoracic Surgery Section, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The DeWitt Daughtry Department of Surgery, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami

关键词: Thoracotomy;    post-operative pain;    post-operative opioid utilization;    enhanced recovery after thoracic surgery (ERATS);   

DOI  :  10.21037/jtd-21-552

学科分类：呼吸医学

来源: Pioneer Bioscience Publishing Company

【 摘 要 】

Background: Enhanced 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.Methods: This 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.Results: A 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) vs. 19.5 (12.6–36.0) (pre-ERATS), P<0.0001]. More importantly, a drastic reduction of total and schedule II opioids dispensed at discharge was noted in the ERATS group [total MME: 150 (100.0–330.0) vs. 800.0 (450.0–975.0), P<0.0001 and schedule II MME: 90.0 (0–242.2) vs. 800.0 (450.0–975.0), P<0.0001; ERATS vs. pre-ERATS respectively]. A shorter hospital stay (median difference of 1 day, P=0.0012 and a mean difference of 2.4 days, P=0.0054) was observed in the enhanced recovery group.Conclusions: Implementation 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.

【 授权许可】

Unknown