Early recovery protocol in patients undergoing laparoscopic radical cystectomy

The Enhanced Recovery After Surgery program (ERAS), has become the basis of perioperative management after colorectal surgery, vascular, thoracic, and more recently the radical cystectomy. The aim of this study is to show our initial experience using an ERAS protocol. A total of 47 laparoscopic radical cystectomies (LRC) were compared in this study. For retrospective data analysis, the patients were divided into two groups: Group A included patients who underwent LRC before the ERAS protocol was implemented; and Group B included patients who underwent LRC after the ERAS protocol was implemented. Hospital stay was significantly shorter (p = 0,04) in Group B with a median of 11.73 days versus 17.53 days in Group A. The paralytic ileus is the most common complication in both groups, and only two complications seem to be lower between groups; central vein catheter infection in Group A was 14.2% versus 5.2% in Group B and paralytic ileus in Group A was 35.7% versus 21.0% in Group B. There was no statistical difference between groups in the appearance of minor or major complications. The combination of minimally invasive surgery and an ERAS protocol is a feasible multidisciplinary challenge and is useful in the recovery of patients undergoing LRC.