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CompletedNCT03517098Updated May 6, 2024

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Pathway for Primary Hip and Knee Arthroplasty

An interventional study of The ERAS group and The non-ERAS group in Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip, Knee, sponsored by West China Hospital. Completed at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-05-06.

Sponsored by West China Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
640
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
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Study summary

As the world goes into the aging society, the number of total hip and total knee arthroplasty (THA and TKA) will increase fast. It's important to develop strategies to improve the quality of healthcare and get earlier recovery and better outcome for patients undergoing THA and TKA. Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathways have been reported to promote faster recovery in some clinical settings, but most of them are retrospective cohort study. We hypothesized that ERAS pathway could provide better recovery than current routine clinical practice for patients undergoing primary THA or TKA.

This trial is a prospective, open-labelled, randomized controlled trial that will test, for length of stay (LOS) in hospital, the superiority of ERAS pathway as compared with current clinical practice. A total of 604 patients undergoing primary THA or TKA will be randomized to allocate either ERAS pathway (ERAS group) or conventional care according to different participating center (non-ERAS group). The primary outcome is LOS in hospital. Secondary outcomes include Postoperative LOS, all-cause mortality by 30 days after operation, in-hospital complications, mobilization, postoperative pain evaluation, total in-hospital cost, and readmission rate by 30 days after discharge from the hospital.

Read the detailed description

Total joint arthroplasty is a definitive treatment for end-stage osteoarthritis of the hip and knee, which is increased as the world goes into the aging society. It was reported that 0.33 million total hip arthroplasty (THA) and 0.7 million total knee arthroplasty (TKA) were performed in the United States annually, and the demand for the procedures were estimated to 0.57 million and 3.48 million per year in 2030, respectively. It's important to find strategies to improve the quality of healthcare and get earlier recovery and better outcome for patients undergoing THA and TKA, so as to slow the growth of the heavy economic burden associated with the increase of the procedures.

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is proposed as a series of evidence-based perioperative optimization with multidisciplinary treatment to reduce surgical stress and accelerate postoperative recovery. Under this general guidelines, different ERAS pathways have been reported to decrease morbidity, save costs, promote faster recovery, and achieve the clinical and economic gain in colorectal, thoracic, and orthopedic surgery. Regional anesthesia was recommended for ERAS because it provides reliable analgesia and little disturbance on hemodynamics in previous literatures. But for patients undergoing THA and TKA, epidural or spinal anesthesia is always associated with indwelling urinary catheter even in surgery with short duration and small amount of blood loss, and femoral or sciatic nerve block decreases muscle strength, leading to postponed mobilization. Nowadays, anesthetic agents with rapid onsetting and clearance make ERAS be applied under general anesthesia. For example, desflurane, a volatile anesthetic with a low blood/gas distribution coefficient, has been reported to metabolized quickly with minor dependence on liver and kidney function, and provide rapid awakening from anesthetic state. Based on its characteristics, we hypothesized that ERAS could be achieved by general anesthesia with the use of short-acting anesthetic agents with the combination of short-acting opioids and muscle relaxant.

In this trial, we'll develop ERAS pathway in patients undergoing primary THA and TKA, and compare with the conventional treatment in length of stay (LOS) in hospital, postoperative complications, as well as the hospitalization costs. The aim of this trial is to verify our hypothesis that ERAS could provide reduced LOS while not increase complications and in-hospital cost when compared with the current clinical practice.

02

Conditions studied

  • Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip, Knee

Keywords

  • Enhanced recovery after surgery
  • General anesthesia
  • Total hip arthroplasty
  • Total knee arthroplasty
03

In context

Lead sponsor

West China Hospital is the lead sponsor of 484 studies on the registry; 241 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients undergoing primary TKA and THA, with both genders.
  • Aged more than 18 years.
  • Ability to communicate. Exclusion criteria
  • Refuse to sign consent.
  • Pregnancy or lactating woman
  • History or family history of malignant hyperthermia.
  • Known allergy to desflurane or any other anesthetic agent.
  • History of substance abuse.
  • History of postoperative delirium.
  • Impairment of cognitive function or communication.
  • Psychopathy.
  • Active participation in another trial where the primary endpoint follow-up is ongoing.
  • Unwillingness or inability to comply with protocol procedures.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
640 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    The ERAS group

    Patients will be treated with the ERAS pathway

    Procedure: The ERAS group

  • Other
    The non-ERAS group

    Patients undergoing THA or TKA will receive conventional care.

    Procedure: The non-ERAS group

Interventions

  • ProcedureThe ERAS group

    ERAS pathway for orthopedic surgeons: 1. Shortened preoperative fasting from intake. 2. Preoperative tranexamic acid administration. 3. No indwelling catheters. 4. No tourniquet used for TKA. 5. No drainage tube. 6. Application of the low molecular heparin 6 hours after the operation. ERAS pathway for anesthesiologist: 1. Intravenous 20 mg of dexamethasone before anesthetic induction. 2. Anesthesia will be induced with small dose of long-acting opioids such as sulfentanil, or without long-acting opioids at all. 3. Laryngeal mask for airway. 4. Anesthesia will be maintained with short-acting anesthetic agents such as desflurane, sevoflurane, or propofol, with continuous remifentanil , and BIS value will be kept between 40 to 60 during procedure. 5. Incision infiltration with 40-50ml of 0.2% ropivacaine, and no patient controlled intravenous analgesia devices will be applied.

  • ProcedureThe non-ERAS group

    Patients undergoing THA or TKA will receive conventional care according to different participating center, and there's no standard protocol for pre-operative management, anesthetic technique or medication choice, postoperative analgesia or food intake, or catheters indwelling.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Length of stay (LOS) in hospital

    Time from the day on arrival at hospital to discharge from the hospital (unit: days).

    Time frame: 30 days

Secondary outcomes

  1. Postoperative LOS

    Time from the day of operation to discharge from the hospital (unit: days).

    Time frame: 30 days

  2. All-cause mortality by 30 days after operation.

    All-cause mortality by 30 days after operation.

    Time frame: 30 days after operation

  3. In-hospital complications

    Complications after operation

    Time frame: 30 days after operation

  4. Mobilization time

    Time from the end of operation to ability to walk without human assistance (unit: hours).

    Time frame: 30 days after operation

  5. Numerical rating scales (NRS) scores at rest and with mobilization or physical therapy

    NRS scores will be applied to evaluate the postoperative pain by the patients themselves using a single 11-point numeric rating scale, which is ranged from 0 to 10, where 0 indicates "no pain" and 10 represents "worst imaginable pain".

    Time frame: 14 days after operation

  6. Postoperative analgesics requirement.

    Postoperative sufentanil or other analgesics requirement.

    Time frame: 7 days after operation

  7. Total in-hospital cost.

    All cost during hospitalization

    Time frame: 30 days

  8. Readmission rate

    Readmission rate by 30 days after discharge from the hospital.

    Time frame: 30 days after discharge

07

Study locations

1 site
  • West China Hospital, Sichuan University
    Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Li J, Zhu H, Liao R. Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathway for primary hip and knee arthroplasty: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2019 Oct 22;20(1):599. doi: 10.1186/s13063-019-3706-8. PubMed 31640757 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — Individual participant data will be accessed under request to Dr. Ren Liao by email: liaoren7733@163.com.

Supporting information: Study protocol

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 6, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03517098
Lead sponsor
West China Hospital
Responsible party
Ren Liao (Associate professor, West China Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 7, 2018
Start date
Feb 1, 2021
Primary completion
Jan 31, 2023
Completion
Dec 31, 2023
Last update
May 6, 2024

Study contacts

Ren Liao, M.D.
principal investigator · Department of anesthesiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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