Dissemination of enhanced recovery after surgery concepts in Germany

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) concepts have fundamentally changed the perioperative care of patients after colorectal resections in the last 30 years. Evidence for these concepts is now sufficiently available. This has found its way into the S3 guidelines on the perioperative management of gastrointestinal tumors (POMGAT), which will be published later this year. The aim of this article is to evaluate the spread of ERAS concepts in Germany based on the existing literature and own data from the Helios Clinic network. For this purpose, in addition to a literature search, a retrospective analysis of all colorectal resections at the Helios Clinics from 2016 to 2021 was carried out. Hardly any published data on the spread of ERAS concepts in Germany are available; however, the data from our own hospital network show that essential components of ERAS do not seem to have been comprehensively implemented across Germany.