Integration of Precision Medicine into ERAS Pathways: A Conceptual Framework, Current Feasibility and Challenges

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) pathways have improved perioperative outcomes by standardizing evidence-based interventions across the surgical continuum. However, substantial variability in postoperative recovery persists, even within well-implemented ERAS programs. This heterogeneity reflects differences in clinical risk, functional reserve, biological response to surgical stress, treatment responsiveness, and contextual factors that are not fully captured by uniform protocols. Precision medicine provides a potential framework for refining ERAS by integrating patient-specific data into perioperative risk assessment, intervention selection, patient monitoring, and recovery planning. Nevertheless, most precision medicine tools remain insufficiently validated for routine ERAS implementation, and their clinical utility is limited by heterogeneous evidence, data integration challenges, costs, workflow complexity, and equity concerns. Future progress will require prospective validation, pragmatic implementation studies, interoperable data systems, and evaluation of patient-centered outcomes. This narrative review examines the emerging role of precision medicine tools in perioperative practice and proposes an idealized conceptual model of “precision ERAS” in which standardized evidence-based care is preserved as the foundation, while selected interventions are adapted according to individual risk, biological phenotype, and recovery trajectory.