What is ERAS?

ERAS® Society - Enhanced Recovery After Surgery ERAS is a multimodal perioperative care pathway designed to achieve early recovery for patients undergoing major surgery ERAS represents a paradigm shift in perioperative care in two ways. First, it re-examines traditional practices, replacing them with evidence-based best practices when necessary. Second, it is comprehensive in its scope, covering all areas of the patient’s journey through the surgical process. The key factors that keep patients in the hospital after surgery include the need for parenteral analgesia, the need for intravenous fluids secondary to gut dysfunction, bed rest caused by lack of mobility. The central elements of the ERAS pathway address these key factors, helping to clarify how they interact to affect patient recovery. In addition, the ERAS pathway provides guidance to all involved in perioperative care, helping them to work as a well-coordinated team to provide the best care.

View our history

Leadership

ERAS® Advisory Council

The ERAS Society Advisory Board is the strategic body of the society. The board appoints the Executive Committee Chair and approves the members of the Executive Committee.

Professor Arthur Revhaug (Norway)

Professor emeritus and Senior Advisor in Surgery, UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Professor Arthur Revhaug is a Co-funding member of the ERAS Study Group and later the ERAS® Society. He has been a member of the Board since the start and from 2016 chairman of the ERAS® Society Board. As a long time head of a university hospital surgical department and university research group, his mantra for […]

Professor Tonia Young-Fadok, M.D. (USA)

Chair of CRS at Mayo Clinic Arizona, and Director of our ERAS® Center of Excellence

Professor Tonia Young-Fadok, M.D. had her Pre-clinical and Clinical Medical School at Oxford University, England. She was a Harvard Surgical Research Fellow at New England Deaconess Hospital, Boston, US. She did her residency at St Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Boston, then ACGME CRS fellowship at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, followed by laparoscopic CRS fellowship. Professor Young-Fadok holds a […]

Dorthe Hjort Jakobsen, R.N. MCN (Denmark)

Clinical Nurse Manager

Dorthe Hjort Jakobsen has been working with developing and implementing ERAS program since 1997 together with Professor Henrik Kehlet. Her particular focus has been on broaden knowledge of fast-track/ERAS principles and supporting to standardize and improve the quality of the surgical care in Denmark by establishing Unit of Perioperative Nusing (2004-2012). The purpose of the […]

Our organisation

Committees

Executive Committee

Associate Professor Ulf Gustafsson (Sweden)

Chair

Ulf is a Senior consultant surgeon, specializing in colorectal surgery, laparoscopic and robotic surgery. He is the head of the division of Coloproctology, Center for Digestive Diseases Karolinska University Hospital & Karolinska Institutet He is Research group leader, Department of Clinical Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. He is an experienced surgeon having completed more 5000 […]

Dr Kwang Yeong How (Singapore)

Treasurer

Dr How Kwang Yeong is a consultant surgeon in the Colorectal Service of the General Surgery Department, Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He specializes in minimally invasive surgery, including endoscopic, laparoscopic and robotic techniques for the treatment of colon and rectal conditions. He also completed a fellowship for advanced and recurrent pelvic cancers. Dr How is […]

Professor Mary Brindle (Canada)

Executive Secretary

Mary Brindle is a pediatric surgeon and Professor or Surgery and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary in Alberta Canada. She is also the Scientific Director of the Alberta Surgery SCN and the Director of the Safe Surgery Safe Systems Program at Ariadne Labs, TH Chan Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. […]

Dr Chris Jones (UK)

Editor in Chief

Chris has been a Consultant Anaesthetist at the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and St Luke’s Cancer Centre in Guildford, UK, since 2013. His training in anaesthesia was based at St George’s in London and he completed further specialist training in high risk and major oncology anaesthesia at Royal Surrey; paediatric intensive care at the […]

Professor Gregg Nelson (Canada)

Scientific chair

Dr. Gregg Nelson is Professor and Chair of Gynecologic Oncology at the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His principal research interest is the development and study of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols in OB-Gyn and cancer surgery. Dr. Nelson was instrumental in bringing ERAS to the […]

Professor Martin Hübner (Switzerland)

Guideline Chair

Professor Martin Hübner is a Swiss- and Mayo-trained surgeon working at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). He is consultant for colorectal surgery and in charge of the peritoneal surface malignancy unit (cytoreductive surgery, HIPEC, PIPAC). His other areas of expertise are enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS), perioperative nutrition and surgical site infections.

Allyson Cochran, PhD MSPH (USA)

Education Chair

Allyson Cochran, PhD MSPH is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Prevention at Wake Forest School of Medicine and the Director of the Center for Surgical Outcomes Science at Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. In her role, she provides analytics, statistics, and research methodology for surgical research, quality improvement, and operations initiatives. As […]

Charlette Hart, MSN, RN, CMSRN (USA)

Nurses and Allied Health Professionals Network Chair

Procedural Quality Director & ERAS USA Nursing ChairCharlette Hart provides operational and quality leadership for surgical services at Baylor Scott & White Health, while leading nationwide efforts to standardise perioperative care protocols and foster multidisciplinary collaboration.

LMIC Committee

Professor Kelly McQueen (USA)

Chair LMIC Committee

Kelly McQueen, MD, MPH is the Ralph M Waters Distinguished Chair in Anesthesiology, and a Professor of Anesthesiology in Madison, Wisconsin. Previously she served as Professor of Anesthesiology and Surgery at Vanderbilt University, where she also directed Global Anesthesia Programs and Development, and the Global Anesthesia Fellowship. Kelly was the founder and inaugural President of […]

Appointed Officers

Professor Olle Ljungqvist (Sweden)

Ambassador

Olle Ljungqvist is a professor of Surgery at Örebro University and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. He co-founded the ERAS® Society and served as the Chairman of its Executive Committee until July 2022. He invented the idea of preoperative oral carbohydrates instead of fasting before elective surgery and has published more than 300 original papers, book chapters and […]

Hedde Lundgren (Sweden)

Global Head of Administration

Hedde Lundgren provides operational and administrative support to the Executive Committee and oversees the organisation’s daily management, including financial and membership administration and logistics coordination.

Centres of Excellence

View our Centres of Excellence worldwide.

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ERAS® SOCIETY Guidelines

View and download all guidelines for free.

Guidelines