Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 28, 2016; 22(28): 6456-6468
Published online Jul 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i28.6456
Enhanced recovery pathways in pancreatic surgery: State of the art
Nicolò Pecorelli, Sara Nobile, Stefano Partelli, Luca Cardinali, Stefano Crippa, Gianpaolo Balzano, Luigi Beretta, Massimo Falconi
Nicolò Pecorelli, Sara Nobile, Stefano Partelli, Stefano Crippa, Gianpaolo Balzano, Massimo Falconi, Division of Pancreatic Surgery, Pancreas Translational and Clinical Research Center, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, “Vita-Salute” University, 20132 Milan, Italy
Luca Cardinali, Department of Surgery, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60100 Ancona, Italy
Luigi Beretta, Department of Anesthesiology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, “Vita-Salute” University, 20132 Milan, Italy
Author contributions: Pecorelli N designed the study, performed the literature review, drafted the manuscript and approved the final version; all other authors contributed to this paper in its critical revision and editing, and approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest, no financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Massimo Falconi, MD, Division of Pancreatic Surgery, Pancreas Translational and Clinical Research Center, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Via Olgettina 60, 20132 Milan, Italy. massimo.falconi@hsr.it
Telephone: +39-02-26436046 Fax: +39-02-26437807
Received: March 30, 2016
Peer-review started: April 5, 2016
First decision: May 12, 2016
Revised: May 21, 2016
Accepted: June 13, 2016
Article in press: June 13, 2016
Published online: July 28, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: In this study, we reviewed the available literature for enhanced recovery pathways in pancreatic surgery with a special focus on the evidence underlying specific perioperative interventions implemented in this surgical subspecialty and on postoperative outcomes. Although the quality of available studies is suboptimal, enhanced recovery proved to be safe and has the potential to reduce postoperative length of stay and costs after pancreatic resection. No evidence is available regarding post-discharge outcomes and patient functional recovery. Further research is needed to clarify the impact of care pathways on patient recovery after pancreatic surgery.