Neonatal Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Outcomes Study

This study is being conducted at three hospitals: Alberta Children's Hospital (Calgary, Canada), The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, Canada), and Great Ormond Street Hospital (London, United Kingdom). The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of recently published Neonatal Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) guidelines and to understand how best to implement these guidelines in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs).

The Neonatal ERAS guidelines are evidence-based recommendations designed to improve the care of newborn infants who require major non-cardiac surgery. The study will compare outcomes before and after the implementation of these guidelines. Because the guidelines reflect best practices in neonatal surgical care, no additional study-specific treatments, procedures, or tests will be required for participating patients.

Each participating NICU will serve as its own comparison group. During an initial 6-month observation period, patient outcomes will be measured while usual care is provided. This will be followed by a 12-month active implementation period, during which healthcare teams will receive additional support and resources to implement the Neonatal ERAS guidelines. All three hospitals will participate in both phases of the study, with implementation occurring sequentially across sites.

The study will collect information on perioperative stability using the Perioperative Management (POM) Score, which includes measures such as body temperature, blood pH, carbon dioxide levels (pCO2), blood glucose levels, and unintended respiratory events. The study will also collect information on clinical outcomes during the first 30 days after surgery.

The study design ensures that all participating NICUs receive the Neonatal ERAS implementation strategy. Introducing the guidelines in stages allows each hospital to adapt the program to its local environment while enabling researchers to compare outcomes both within and between sites over time. The participating hospitals were selected to represent different types of neonatal surgical centres, including both Canadian and international sites, to improve the relevance and generalizability of the findings.

Eligible participants will be newborn infants admitted to the NICU at one of the participating hospitals who require major non-cardiac surgery and return to the NICU for at least one night after surgery. Infants must be between 24 and 44 weeks corrected gestational age at the time of surgery.

Each study site will include a 6-month pre-implementation cohort and a 12-month active implementation cohort. Infants enrolled at Alberta Children's Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital will be followed for up to 12 months after surgery. Infants enrolled at The Hospital for Sick Children will be followed for up to 18 months because additional neurodevelopmental follow-up will be performed at that site. Due to the staggered implementation across hospitals, the study is expected to take approximately 4.5 years to complete.

All patient outcome data will be collected through retrospective review of medical records. No study-specific patient assessments, tests, or procedures are required because all information collected is part of routine clinical care. Because each hospital will transition from usual care to active implementation at a known time, it will not be possible to blind study staff collecting the data.

The implementation component of the study will be evaluated through retrospective chart reviews to measure adoption of the guidelines, as well as surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions with healthcare providers and family caregivers to understand barriers and facilitators to implementation.