Enhanced Recovery program helps surgery patients feel better sooner

Most people stay in the hospital for one to two weeks after surgery for pancreas cancer. But Mark Butterbrodt was in and out four days after his surgery at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center earlier this year.

Butterbrodt’s shorter-than-average hospital stay was thanks in large part to the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) program. Developed by surgical experts and adopted by M Health Fairview’s pancreas surgery team several years ago, the program is helping patients get back on their feet faster and with fewer complications.

For Butterbrodt, a physician on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, an earlier discharge and smoother recovery meant a quicker return to his work on the frontlines of the pandemic.

Retired from the Indian Health Service, Butterbrodt now works as the medical director of a nursing home on the reservation. This past year, he’s also been driving out to the community’s most rural areas, providing essential COVID-19 testing and vaccinations.

“When I went in for surgery, I was thinking about how I needed to get back to the reservation and continue helping. I have so many adopted family members in the community,” he said. “It was amazing that I was able to go back to work, or to the playground with children just a month after surgery.”