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Research & Innovation

The Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery initiative (ERAS) aims to improve your child’s recovery after heart surgery. We rely on evidence-based guidelines to enhance all phases of surgical care — from pre-op through post-surgical follow up — so that your child will have a quicker recovery with fewer complications and spend less time in the hospital.

We’re always researching and considering new approaches to surgical care. Here are studies we’re leading or participating in to advance patient recovery:

Reducing post-surgical pain with fewer opioids

With clinicians and parents both aware of the risks of opioid addiction, we’re studying the effectiveness of approaches that don’t require opioids to minimize post-operative pain in patients. Working alongside the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, one such approach is administering a non-opioid anesthetic through a nerve block catheter, in addition to intravenous and oral pain medications, to reduce opioids.

Fitness trackers to measure recovery

A patient’s level of comfort following surgery and their overall recovery is assessed throughout a day by a fitness and wellness tracker. This study, which is being conducted in conjunction with the post-surgical pain study, follows a patient’s sleep patterns and steps taken during a day, and measures heart rate and other vital signs that can detect discomfort or pain. We also ask patients to answer an electronic questionnaire to assess their pain and sleep.

Recovery is a family-centered experience

Our top priority is minimizing post-operative pain and making patients feel healthy as soon as possible so they can go home. To gauge how effectively we manage a child’s recovery, we ask their family members to share their thoughts about the post-surgical recovery process. Tracking recovery and the satisfaction of families is one of the most valuable measurements we can use to see how effectively and quickly we help patients.