Anesthetic Management for Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERACS)

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is a protocol-based multidisciplinary initiative to improve various outcomes. ERAS-based protocols typically cover the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative periods. They have led to many benefits, such as decreasing hospital length of stay, complications, readmission rates, and costs.  ERAS guidelines have existed for over a decade and are used in many surgical specialties, but recently, they have come to the forefront in cardiac surgery. In 2019, the ERAS Cardiac Society (ERAS CS) released its first consensus expert review guidelines for patients undergoing cardiac surgery, commonly referred to as the Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERACS) guidelines. This topic discusses the main categories of the ERACS guidelines and findings from other studies that address ERAS-based strategies in cardiac surgery.