Application of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery for Congenital Esophageal Atresia During Perioperative Period

The concept of enhanced recovery after surgery was introduced by Kelhet et al. in the 1990s for colorectal surgery, and it referred to a group of measures performed during a patient's treatment course to improve operative outcomes, reduce complications, and speed up patient recovery. It is now widely applied in many surgical fields, such as thoracic surgery The esophageal atresia is a group of birth defects including a break in continuity of the esophagus with or without persistent communication with the trachea (tracheoesophageal fistula), and occurs in approximately 1 in 3500-4500 births. Refinements in surgical technique and perioperative care have dramatically decreased mortality rates of infants with EA/TEF, such that mortality is generally related to associated anomalies. Accordingly, the current focus in optimizing patient outcomes has shifted toward decreasing morbidity, including minimizing postoperative complications, speeding up recovery. One of the milestones in recent years is the introduction and rapid development of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). This surgical method has beneficial effects on patient's post-operative recovery and functional status without compromising surgical resection. A range of operations can now be safely performed via VATS.

Although the survival rate of EA is more than 90 percent, there are still many postoperative complications, including anastomotic leakage, recurrence of esophagotracheal fistula, esophageal stenosis, gastroesophageal reflux and other problems, which seriously affect the prognosis. For decades, in order to reduce the complications, post-operative muscle paralysis, mechanical ventilation and urinary catheterization were performed for at least 2 days as convention perioperative management. However, complications after general anesthesia and endotracheal intubation are not negligible, and urinary catheterization is associated with urethral trauma, discomfort, infection. The main reason for placement of chest tube is for post-operative monitoring. However, a chest drain is a recognized cause of post-operative pain and can affect patient's post-operative morbility as well as effective chest physiotherapy.

The current project aims to explored the possibility of ERAS approach (i.e. weaning mechanical ventilation after surgery (less than 48h), no post-operative chest tube and urinary catheterization) for specific Type C EA (the distance of blind end is less than 2.5cm, weight>2.4Kg, without related malformations (heart, kidney, for example), and without structural heart disease (excluding patent ductus arteriosus, patent foramen ovale, or atrial septal defect)).