A new study published in The BMJ suggests that prehabilitation (also called prehab) may be able to reduce complications and length of hospitalization after surgery, while also improving quality of life and physical recovery. The systematic review and meta-analysis, which is the largest of its kind, examined data from more than 15,000 patients who participated in 186 randomized controlled clinical trials around the world. The researchers looked at various kinds of prehab, including exercise, nutritional enhancement, psychological support, cognitive training and various combinations of these.
They found that exercise was the most promising component, followed by nutritional enhancement. If you are going to be having surgery, it is always a good idea to ask about prehabilitation. If you are willing and able to regularly increase your activity levels and protein intake for a few weeks before surgery, you are likely to experience a noticeably shorter recovery time after surgery.
" Dr. Daniel McIsaac, lead author, anesthesiologist and senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and Clinical Research Chair in Perioperative Innovation at the University of Ottawa The researchers note, however, that many of the prehabilitation trials were conducted in single hospitals, and therefore it is unclear how well the results would translate to other hospitals or outside of tightly controlled research settings. "Prehabilitation is very promising, but we still don't know how best to implement it acro.