Effects of an enhanced recovery after surgery nursing programme on surgical site wound infection and postoperative complications in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the effects of the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) nursing program on surgical wound infection (SWI) and postoperative complications in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang databases were searched from the date of establishment of the database until August 2023 for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that assessed the effects of the ERAS nursing program on SWI and postoperative complications in patients undergoing TKA. The literature was screened, data were extracted by two independent investigators, and the literature quality was assessed using the methods recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration. Data analysis was performed using Stata 17.0 software. Nineteen RCTs with 1580 patients were included in the study. The meta-analysis results showed that the rates of SWI (odds ratio [OR] = 0.19, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.10-0.37, p < 0.001) and postoperative complications (OR = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.12-0.25, p < 0.001) were significantly lower in the ERAS intervention group than those in the control group. Therefore, ERAS intervention after TKA can significantly reduce the occurrence of SWI and postoperative complications. It has a remarkable rehabilitation effect and can be widely used in clinical settings.

Automated summary

This meta-analysis investigated the effects of the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) nursing program on surgical wound infection (SWI) and postoperative complications in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). The results showed that the rates of SWI and postoperative complications were significantly lower in the ERAS intervention group compared to the control group. Therefore, ERAS intervention can effectively reduce the occurrence of SWI and postoperative complications, and have a remarkable rehabilitation effect that can be widely used in clinical settings.