Fast Track Treatment includes many elements recommended by the ERAS Society for cardiac surgery(1). Since November 2005, we are running a specialized post anesthetic care unit (PACU) in our tertiary, university affiliated high-volume heart centre. In our concept, we are bypassing ICU admission completely. The patients are transferred from the operation room to the recovery room, extubated there within a short time, stabilized and transferred on the same day to intermediate care (IMC). Ideally, the patient will be transferred to the normal ward on the first postoperative day. The fast-track concept was initially applied to pre-selected elective patients undergoing low-risk operations. However, promising outcomes led to a more widespread utilization with more complex procedures. The aim of this study is to analyse the evolutions within the fast-track protocol over a period of 15 years (from November 2005 to December 2020).
Since November 2005, we are running a specialized post anesthetic care unit (PACU) in our tertiary, university affiliated high-volume heart centre. In our concept, we are bypassing ICU admission completely. The fast-track concept was initially applied to pre-selected elective patients undergoing low-risk operations. However, promising outcomes led to a more widespread utilization with more complex procedures. The aim of this study is to analyse the fast track evolutions.