“Fast-track”-Rehabilitation in Surgery, a Multimodal Concept

Abstract

The rates of postoperative local surgical complications (e.g. wound-infection, abscess, anastomotic leakage) and the postoperative mortality have markedly decreased over the past decades. However the occurrence of general medical complications (e.g. cardio-pulmonary or renal dysfunction, nosocomial infections, thromboembolism) after abdominal surgery is still frequent with an incidence of 20–60% (1–6).

“Fast-track”-surgery, also called “Fast-track”-rehabilitation or “ERAS” (enhanced recovery after surgery) programme, is a combination of different pre-and intraoperative measures, which have been mainly validated in elective colonic surgery, but they can be principally employed in all surgical settings. With this approach it is possible to accelerate the postoperative convalescence and reduce the rate of general complications markedly (4, 7–10).

Key Words:

• “Fast-track”
• surgery
• rehabilitation
• morbidity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

W. Schwenk

W. Schwenk, M.D., Professor of Surgery Department of General, Visceral, Vascular and Thoracic Surgery Universitätsmedizin Berlin – Charité campus Mitte Schumannstr 20/21 10117 Berlin, Germany Tel.: [phone] Fax: [phone] E-mail: [email protected]