The idea of ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) is to create a protocol that allows to optimise perioperative care. According to recommendations created by an international team of specialists, the ERAS protocol reduces perioperative stress, helps to maintain optimal postoperative physiological functions and to enhance mobilisation after surgery. The ERAS protocol was introduced in the Department of General, Oncological, Metabolic and Thoracic Surgery, Military Institute of Medicine, Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of National Defense in Warsaw in 2015 as a part of randomized prospective study on a group of patients operated for colorectal cancer. The ERAS protocol includes patients’ preoperative education, optimized analgesia with restricted fluid intake, avoiding hypothermia, minimizing opioid doses, early mobilization and fast realimentation in the postoperative period. Numerous test results explicitly show less postoperative complications and shortened stay in hospital in the ERAS group as compared to the control group, which indicates that the ERAS protocol should now be considered as a standard of perioperative care.