Association between use of enhanced recovery after surgery protocols and postoperative complications in colorectal surgery in Europe: The EuroPOWER international observational study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Assess the relationship between the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS®) pathway and routine care and 30-day postoperative outcomes. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: European centers (185 hospitals) across 21 countries. PATIENTS: A total of 2841 adult patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery. Each hospital had a 1-month recruitment period between October 2019 and September 2020. INTERVENTIONS: Routine perioperative care. MEASUREMENTS: Twenty-four components of the ERAS pathway were assessed in all patients regardless of whether they were treated in a formal ERAS pathway. A multivariable and multilevel logistic regression model was used to adjust for baseline risk factors, ERAS elements and country-based differences. RESULTS: A total of 1835 patients (65%) received perioperative care at a self-declared ERAS center, 474 (16.7%) developed moderate-to-severe postoperative complications, and 63 patients died (2.2%). There was no difference in the primary outcome between patients who were or were not treated in self-declared ERAS centers (17.1% vs. 16%; OR 1.00; 95%CI, 0.79-1.27; P = 0.986). Hospital stay was shorter among patients treated in self-declared ERAS centers (6 [5-9] vs. 8 [6-10] days; OR 0.82; 95%CI, 0.78-0.87; P < 0.001). Median adherence to 24 ERAS elements was 57% [48%-65%]. Adherence to ERAS-pathway quartiles (≥65% vs. <48%) suggested that patients with the highest adherence rates experienced a lower risk of moderate-to-severe complications (15.9% vs. 17.8%; OR 0.71; 95%CI, 0.53-0.96; P = 0.027), lower risk of death (0.3% vs. 2.9%; OR 0.10; 95%CI, 0.02-0.42; P = 0.002) and shorter hospital stay (6 [4-8] vs. 7 [5-10] days; OR 0.74; 95%CI, 0.69-0.79; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment in a self-declared ERAS center does not improve outcome after colorectal surgery. Increased adherence to the ERAS pathway is associated with a significant reduction in overall postoperative complications, lower risk of moderate-to-severe complications, shorter length of hospital stay and lower 30-day mortality.

Medical Device Related Pressure Injury in the Treatment of Chronic Pain: An Early Sign of Explantation in Suspected Infection.

BACKGROUND: Chronic back pain is a prevalent disease and has a high impact in daily life. Implantable devices (IDs) for chronic pain management include spinal cord stimulation (SCS) systems and intrathecal drug delivery (ITDD) pumps. The number of ITDD implants have increased exponentially in the last decade. The number of complications, such as infections, are also more prevalent. Infection management guidelines are needed to standarize our clinical practice and define protocols of explantation. OBJECTIVES: The primary outcome is to define the likelihood of device explantation regarding some covariates related to the patient, antibiotic therapy or surgerical procedures. The secondary outcome is to evaluate performance compared to the results published in the literature. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: Hospital General of Valencia. Valencia. Spain. METHODS: A retrospective study of 288 implantable device surgeries was conducted at the Hospital General Universitary of Valencia (Spain) from 1994 to 2015. Demographical and infection data were collected. We have followed the "guidelines for the diagnosis, prevention and management of implantable electronic cardiac device infection" due to the lack of a specific guideline in our field. RESULTS: Forty-three out of 288 procedures were identified as suspected device-infected interventions. Half of the patients had microbiologically confirmed infection after wound, blood or lumbar fluid culture. The odds ratio (OR) for explantation of the device was 19 for the presence of decubitus, a sign of medical device related pressure injury (P < 0.0005) and 5 for positive wound culture (P < 0.0452). Medical indication leading to device implantation and the antibiotics on discharge also played a role in the decision of device explantation. LIMITATIONS: Lack of external validity and others. CONCLUSION: In this study, presence of decubitus is the defining variable for device explantation when a infection is suspected rather than waiting to culture results. Due to a high variability in infection rates, multidisciplinary guidelines are needed to provide an approach that focuses on accurate data monitoring, rigurous implantation technique and standardized protocols. KEY WORDS: Chronic pain, spinal cord stimulation infection, neurostimulator, intrathecal drug delivery pump, complication, infection, explantation.

Epidural Neurostimulation of Posterior Funiculi for the Treatment of Buerger's Disease.

Background. Buerger disease is a nonatherosclerotic, segmental, occlusive and recurrent inflammatory vascular disorder that affects small and medium-sized arteries and veins of the upper and lower extremities. Case reports. We report two cases of Buerger disease. Medical History. Smoking habit. No autoimmune diseases. No diabetes mellitus. Intermittent vascular claudication at 100-150 m. Several hospital admissions for amputations. Prior Medical Treatment. Antiplatelet agents, vasodilators, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, third-step analgesics, fibrinolytic treatment and lumbar sympathectomies. Following all of the above treatments, Synergy(®) spinal cord (ECP) stimulator with two electrodes (Quad PISCES(©) ) placed at the level of T9-T10. Results. There has been a reduction in pain of about 80% and an improvement of intermittent claudication (one of the patients no longer claudicates, whereas the other patient claudicates at 400 m). Conclusion. Neurostimulation of the posterior funiculi could be considered not only as palliative care but also as a therapeutic option.

[Locoregional anesthesia and drugs that affect hemostasis. Suggestions of the expert meeting in the ESRA Congress in Barcelona]. / Anestesia locorregional y fármacos que alteran la hemostasia. Sugerencias de la reunión de expertos en el Congreso de la ESRA de Barcelona.

Growing interest in the effect of hemostasis-altering medications on regional anesthetic techniques was analyzed recently in a review article suggesting certain safety measures, by Llau and colleages in Revista Española de Anestesiología y Reanimación. Since that review, however, it has become necessary to extend the discussion of clinical issues, based on information presented at the Eighth Local Meeting of the European Society for Regional Anesthesia (ESRA) of May 2002. There, participants debated the most controversial aspects, with attention to practical questions such as temporal safety margins and approaches to take given certain platelet antiaggregants, fibrinolytics or drug combinations. This paper faithfully presents the suggestions made by participants at the meeting. As most anesthesiologists expressed the need to set guidelines for fibrinolytics, the main issues related to those drugs in regional anesthesia are reviewed.