Impact of Preoperative Education on Clinical Outcomes Following Major Head & Neck Surgery: A Systematic Review

To perform a systematic review of the effect of preoperative teaching methods on outcomes for adult patients undergoing major head and neck surgery.

OVID Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane, Pubmed, and Embase databases were queried.

A comprehensive literature search was conducted in January 2024 using Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL Complete (EBSCOhost), and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). Following PRISMA methodology, primary literature published between January 2000 and January 2024 was queried. The search focused on studies examining preoperative patient education for major head and neck cancer surgeries. The Methodological Index for Non-Randomized Studies (MINORS) criteria were employed to assess the risk of bias in the included studies.

Our initial search strategy yielded 1140 titles with 54 meeting criteria for full-text review. Four publications were included in the final study, all of which were published within the last 8 years. Thematic analysis revealed that most teaching interventions included multidisciplinary sessions or days, educational material, and support to caregivers. The most common finding from teaching interventions was decreased hospital length of stay, while some authors also found decreased readmission rates and fewer post operative complications in intervention cohorts.

Preoperative education utilizing multidisciplinary teams has demonstrated an improvement in length of stay and in some cases, fewer complications and readmissions in adult patients following major head and neck surgery. More robust research is needed to draw further conclusions on impact to patient outcomes and cost.