What is an ERAS Protocol?

Typically, what we do for each and every patient is running ERAs protocol. ERAs protocol means enhanced recovery after surgery. What does that entail? There's medications you take the night before surgery. You'll say, why are we taking stuff the night before? Because we want to avoid problems with nausea, increase pain and inflammation, and then nerve pain the night before. I have everybody take Zofran, which is for nausea, Gabapentin, which is to help to reduce nerve pain and make it so the anesthesia provider has an easier time getting you off to sleep. And then the Celebrex is the anti inflammatory I prefer to use, and that's obviously decreased inflammation. So those are taken the night before. And then you bring all of your medications to the surgery center the day of. We'll provide you, obviously, with the location that we're using for your case and then your arrival time. I like to start really early in the morning. I've been doing it for 20 years. Typically we start between 6 and 7 o', clock, so your arrival time is always an hour to 90 minutes before that designated start time. The medications, and if you're going to need more of them, you'll have them with you. We also place a scopolamine patch, which is for motion sickness. Once again, we're trying to do everything preemptively. We don't like to react to situations, we want to avoid them by being proactive.