In its essence ERAS takes care of multiple aspects of peri-operative period. You try optimise the patient's health - get him to lose weight, normalise his BSL and BP, improve his aerobic fitness. During the case you manage fluid balance, analgesia and other things in the context of surgery being done. After the operation - early mobilization, reducing the amount of opioids, early feeding, etc., etc. You can easily find details by searching Google.
Very interesting... I follow a FB group for living kidney donors and it often seems like once one thing gets "off" (fluids, food, not being able to walk soon after, too much opiods, etc.) then other things don't go nearly as well in their recovery. I think all that was optimized for me.
Stress response leads to the increase in oxygen consumption, and in order to sustain it cardiovascular fitness is important.
At rest oxygen consumption is about 2-4 ml/kg/min, give or take. For about 48 hours after major surgery it can be elevated to 6-8 ml/kg/min. If we pull the patient through the stress test and he is capable to achieve 10 ml/kg/min for a short time it is a good indication that he or she will be coping with more sustained demands at lower levels. So, better fitness, better he ability to cope with post-op stress.
Fascinating. Now the treadmill stress test that they did on me in the pre-op testing makes a lot more sense.... and I see how my aerobic fitness served me well.
Thanks for that info @Damiola