Enhanced Recovery in Thoracic Surgery

Abstract

With the development and improvement of enhanced recovery after surgery protocol over the past 20 years, there is an increasing acceptance and application of enhanced recovery after surgery in many surgical subspecialties. Thoracic surgery has also started adopting the practice of enhanced recovery after surgery, and some hospitals have already implemented elements of enhanced recovery after surgery pertinent to thoracic surgical patients such as optimization of preoperative pulmonary rehabilitation, increasing application of regional anesthesia in multimodal analgesia, single chest tube placement, and early removal of chest tube. Enhanced recovery in thoracic surgery has resulted some improved clinical outcomes with multidisciplinary multimodal perioperative approach.