Prehabilitation Programs Improve Exercise Capacity Before and After Surgery in Gastrointestinal Cancer Surgery...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Surgical Gastroenterology
• Evidence-Based Medicine

Background:

• Prehabilitation programs aim to optimize patients before surgery through exercise, nutrition, and psychological support.
• These interventions seek to improve physiological capacity and surgical recovery.
• Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer surgery patients are a focus for prehabilitation due to significant surgical stress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of prehabilitation programs on surgical and patient outcomes in GI cancer surgery.
• To synthesize evidence from randomized control trials (RCTs) on prehabilitation effectiveness.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature search identified RCTs comparing prehabilitation programs to standard care in GI cancer surgery.
• Key outcomes included 6-minute walk distance (6MWD), postoperative complications, surgical site infections (SSI), pneumonia, length of stay (LOS), readmission, and mortality.

Main Results:

• Eleven RCTs with 929 patients were analyzed; 475 received prehabilitation and 454 were controls.
• Prehabilitation significantly improved 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) both pre- and post-surgery.
• No significant differences were found in postoperative complications, LOS, readmission, or mortality.

Conclusions:

• Prehabilitation programs effectively enhance exercise capacity in GI cancer surgery patients.
• Current evidence does not support a significant reduction in length of stay or complication rates with prehabilitation.
• Further research is needed to identify the most effective components of prehabilitation programs.