Preoperative Education is Associated with Adherence to Downstream Components and Outcomes in a Colorectal Surgery Enhanced Recovery Program

This study evaluated the association between preoperative education and adherence to downstream components of enhanced recovery programs (ERPs) and surgical outcomes among patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery. ERPs improve outcomes for surgical patients. While preoperative education is an essential component of ERPs, its relationship with other components is unclear. This was a retrospective cohort study of all ERP patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery from 2019 to 2022. Our institutional ERP database was linked with American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data and stratified by adherence to preoperative education. Primary outcomes included adherence to individual ERP components and secondary outcomes included high-level ERP adherence (>70% of components), length of stay (LOS), readmissions, and 30-day complications. A total of 997 patients were included. The mean (SD) age was 56.5 (15.8) years, 686 (57.3%) were female, and 717 (71.9%) were white. On adjusted analysis, patients who received preoperative education (n = 877, 88%) had higher adherence rates for the following ERP components: no prolonged fasting (estimate = +19.6%; P < 0.001), preoperative blocks (+8.0%; P = 0.02), preoperative multimodal analgesia (+18.0%; P < 0.001), early regular diet (+15.9%; P < 0.001), and postoperative multimodal analgesia (+6.4%; P < 0.001). High-level ERP adherence was 13.4% higher (P < 0.01) and LOS was 2.0 days shorter (P < 0.001) for those who received preoperative education. Classification and regression tree analysis identified preoperative education as the first-level predictor for adherence to early regular diet, the second-level predictor for LOS, and the third-level predictor for ERP high-level adherence. Preoperative education is associated with adherence to ERP components and improved surgical outcomes.