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Three Nurse-administered Protocols Reduce Nutritional Decline and Frailty in Older Gastrointestinal Surgery Patients: A Cluster Randomized Trial.
Chia-Hui Chen, C, Yang, YT, Lai, IR, Lin, BR, Yang, CY, Huang, J, Tien, YW, Chen, CN, Lin, MT, Liang, JT, et al
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2019;(5):524-529.e3
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of the modified Hospital Elder Life Program (mHELP) comprising 3 nurse-administered protocols in older patients undergoing gastrointestinal (GI) surgery. DESIGN Cluster randomized trial. SETTING Two 36-bed GI wards at a university-affiliated medical center in Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS Older patients (≥65 years, N = 377) were recruited if they were scheduled for elective GI surgery with an expected length of hospital stay >6 days. After transferring to the GI ward after surgery, participants were randomly assigned to the mHELP or control group (1:1) by room rather than individually because most patient units are double- or triple-occupancy rooms. INTERVENTION The mHELP protocols (early mobilization, oral and nutritional assistance, and orienting communication) were administered daily with usual care by a trained nurse until hospital discharge. The control group received usual care only. MEASURES Outcomes were in-hospital nutritional decline, measured by body weight and Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) scores, and Fried's frailty phenotype. Return of GI motility was examined as a potential mechanism contributing to observed outcomes. RESULTS Participants (mean age = 74.5 years; 56.8% male) primarily underwent colorectal (56.5%), gastric (21.2%), and pancreatobiliary (13.8%) surgery. Participants who received the mHELP [for a median of 7 days (interquartile range = 6-10 days)] had significantly lower in-hospital weight loss and decline in MNA scores (weight -2.1 vs -4.0 lb, P = .002; score -3.2 vs -4.0, P = .03) than the control group. The mHELP group also had significantly lower rates of incident frailty during hospitalization (12.0% vs 21.7%, P = .022), and persistent frailty (50.0% vs 92.9%, P = .03). Participants in the mHELP group had trends toward an accelerated return of GI motility. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS The mHELP effectively reduced nutritional decline, prevented new frailty, and promoted recovery of frailty present before admission. These nurse-administered protocols might be useful in other settings, including conditions managed at home or in nursing facilities.
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Enhanced recovery after surgery for radical cystectomy with ileal urinary diversion: a multi-institutional, randomized, controlled trial from the Chinese bladder cancer consortium.
Lin, T, Li, K, Liu, H, Xue, X, Xu, N, Wei, Y, Chen, Z, Zhou, X, Qi, L, He, W, et al
World journal of urology. 2018;(1):41-50
Abstract
PURPOSE Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) has played an important role in recovery management for radical cystectomy with ileal urinary diversion (RC-IUD). This study is to evaluate ERAS compared with the conventional recovery after surgery (CRAS) for RC-IUD. METHODS From October 2014 and July 2016, bladder cancer patients scheduled for curative treatment from 25 centers of Chinese Bladder Cancer Consortium were randomly assigned to either ERAS or CRAS group. Primary endpoint was the 30-day complication rate. Secondary endpoints included recovery of fluid and regular diet, flatus, bowel movement, ambulation, and length of stay (LOS) postoperatively. Follow-up period was 30-day postoperatively. RESULTS There were 144 ERAS and 145 CRAS patients. Postoperative complications occurred in 25.7 and 30.3% of the ERAS and CRAS patients with 55 complications in each group, respectively (p = 0.40). There was no significant difference between groups in major complications (p = 0.82), or type of complications (p = 0.99). The ERAS group had faster recovery of bowel movements (median 88 versus 100 h, p = 0.01), fluid diet tolerance (68 versus 96 h, p < 0.001), regular diet tolerance (125 versus 168 h, p = 0.004), and ambulation (64 versus 72 h, p = 0.047) than the CRAS group, but similar time to flatus and LOS. CONCLUSIONS ERAS did not increase 30-day complications compared with CRAS after RC. ERAS may be better than CRAS in terms of bowel movement, tolerance of fluid and regular diet, and ambulation.