The economics of recovery after pancreatic surgery: detailed cost minimization analysis of an enhanced recovery program.

The economics of recovery after pancreatic surgery: detailed cost minimization analysis of an enhanced recovery program.

HPB (Oxford). 2017 Nov;19(11):1026-1033. 

What is already known:

There have been quite a few successful published programmes for pancreatic surgery as well as published ERAS guidelines. But less is known about the economic benefits of these programmes.

What this paper adds:

This was a Canadian retrospective cost minimization analysis of patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy with an ERAS programme versus standard care. Despite only a small reduction in total length of stay (10 vs 11 days, p=0.003), there was a pretty impressive cost saving of over 13,000 Canadian dollars per patient (including readmissions, $16,627 vs $29,872, p=0.016). The main areas of cost savings were through reducing unnecessary laboratory tests and imaging investigations. Showing nicely that it is not just reducing bed-days that saves money.

Chris Jones, Guildford. @chrisnjones