Case study: Improving patient readiness for major surgery through prehabilitation
Staff: Dr Garry Tew, Professor John Saxton, Dr Gabriel Cucato, Dr Jenni Naisby
Major surgery elicits a huge strain on the body. Exercise scientists from 51 have demonstrated that exercise-based prehabilitation programmes can help vascular and cancer patients to cope with this strain by safely improving physical fitness and other risk factors in the weeks leading up to surgery. This research directly secured GBP1,900,000 in funding and led to the launch of the PREPARE-ABC clinical trial. This enabled 23 colorectal cancer hospital units across the UK to establish new prehabilitation services. By October 2020, 400 patients received exercise support through this programme, leading to improved health outcomes. In North East England, a new community-based service called PREPWELL was established in 2018 and over 30 clinicians from James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, referred 171 patients for individualised prehabilitation support, leading to improved patient outcomes. Patients previously deemed as ‘unfit’ for aortic aneurysm surgery were able to improve fitness through prehabilitation, successfully undergo surgery, and recover without complications. Find out more
Underpinning research
Garry Tew, Batterham, A.M., Colling, K., Gray, J., Kerr, K., Kothmann, K., Nawaz, S., Weston, M., Yates, D. and Danjoux, G. (2017) ‘’ The British Journal of Surgery 104(13): 1791-1801
Garry Tew, Ayyash, R., Durrand, J. and Danjoux, G.R. (2018) ‘’ Anaesthesia 73(6): 750-768
Banerjee, S., Manley, K., Shaw, B., Lewis, L., Gabriel Cucato, Mills, R., Rochester, M., Clark, A., and John Saxton (2018) ‘’ Support Care Cancer 26: 1515-1523
Banerjee, S., Semper, K., Skarparis, K., Jenni Naisby, Lewis, L., Gabriel Cucato, Mills, R., Rochester, M. and John Saxton (2019) ‘’ Disability and Rehabilitation 14: 1-8
Faithfull, S., Turner, L., Poole, K., Joy, M., Manders, R., Weprin, J., Winters-Stone, K., and John Saxton (2019). ‘’ European Journal of Cancer Care 28(4): e13023
