A good first step for ERAS in otolaryngoiatric field, but it is not enough

We read thoroughly the article by Liao et al1 “Decreased hospital charges and postoperative pain in septoplasty by application of enhanced recovery after surgery” and we found it very interesting and innovative, given the low level of evidence about the application of the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol in otolaryngologic field. Nevertheless, there are some points that we have focused on since they remain unclear and decrease the scientific reliability of the results. First, we have noticed that the primary endpoint is not well defined, and this is reflected in the whole setting of the study: randomization method, allocation of the patients, statistical analysis, and results. Whilst perioperative management of the ERAS group is quite well described, however, the “common processing” of the control group remains undefined. In our opinion, for all these reasons, readers cannot fully understand the author’s objective, thus making this study difficult to reproduce.