How does the application of surgical components in enhanced recovery programs for colorectal surgery change over time?

Enhanced recovery programs (ERP) improve post-operative outcomes in proportion to how fully they are implemented. Maintaining an optimal level of application of all the ER components is thus essential. Our aim was to assess the sustainability of ER surgical components 2 years after their first implementation. Patients undergoing elective colorectal resections were included in a prospective database. To retrospectively analyze compliance with ERP over a period of 24 months, the following components were considered: colonic preparation, surgical approach, nasogastric tube omission and absence of abdominal drainage. 2565 patients with a mean age of 63.6 ± 14.4 years from 63 colorectal centers were included. There were 1853 (72.2%) colectomies and 558 (21.7%) rectal resections. The median duration of hospital stay was 5 days [Interquartiles 4–8]. Overall morbidity was 21.9%, surgical morbidity was 8.1%, including 2.8% anastomotic fistulae. Overall, the ERP component most often applied with was postoperative nasogastric tube omission (93.6%), followed by laparoscopic approach (81.7%), absence of drainage (74.9%), and colonic preparation omission (67.3%). Implementation of surgical components significantly decreased over time: less laparoscopy (from 86.8% to 76.6%, p