People facing the daunting prospect of going under the knife should work out and eat healthily as part of “prehabilitation” aimed at aiding post-operation recovery, according to researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in the United States.
The “emerging approach” to surgery preparation has been found to shorten hospital in-patient time and halve the likelihood of complications after an operation, the UCLA team said, following a study of 23 trials involving around 2,100 people who underwent a procedure and rehabilitation.
Eating well before surgery reduced hospital stays by 14%, according to the team, while a pre-operative fitness programme reduced stays by 11% and meant a 55% reduction in the likelihood of post-op complications.
The researchers said they looked at how so-called prehabilitation affected complications within 12 weeks after surgery, as well as related impacts on the patient’s quality of life and mental health.
“Exercise or nutrition-based prehabilitation programmes reduce length of stays and complications across multiple surgical contexts,” the team said in a paper published by the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS).
Those who stuck with exercise-based preparation ahead of surgery saw a 55% lower chance of complications, compared with standard care.
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The need to exercise prior to surgery has long been a prerequisite for some operations, such as reconstruction of the knee after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear.
A doctor can sometimes determine that a candidate for the operation does not have sufficient leg and quadriceps strength, meaning weeks of gym leg days and cycling are prescribed before the surgery is carried out.
The patient is then advised to follow gruelling and time-consuming rehab, which can run from six to nine months.
In their study, the UCLA team found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that exercise-based preparation was used in cases of orthopaedic surgery, while nutrition was the focus when it came to gearing up for gastrointestinal and cardiac (heart) procedures.
“Both nutritional and exercise-based prehabilitation programmes can improve recovery after surgery, but each may offer different benefits,” said study first author Dr Catherine Cascavita, calling for further research to fine-tune bespoke regimens based on patient and type of operation.
“We are just beginning to understand how we can improve surgical outcomes before a patient has surgery,” said study senior author Prof Dr Justine Lee. – dpa
