2023-07-12 10:08:32
Good physical fitness can significantly reduce the incidence of complications following surgery. And for planned procedures, just four to six weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can make a world of difference. Short but intense stress phases alternate with recovery phases.
For a study by the University of Otago in New Zealand, 12 previous studies with 832 patients who carried out such training before their surgery were evaluated. The intensity phases were carried out with around 80 percent of the respective maximum heart rate. The study is in the journal Surgery appeared.
According to study leader Kari Clifford, the study included all kinds of major surgeries. Those that are expected to last more than two hours or where a blood loss of more than 500 milliliters is to be expected. These included liver, lung and intestinal surgeries, as well as urological and various major abdominal surgeries. The average age of the participants in the group that carried out such training was 66 years, in the control group without training before the operation it was 67 years.
“We have found that high-intensity interval training is safe and effective for surgical patients,” says Clifford. It can improve a patient’s fitness “significantly within four to six weeks, which reduces complications following the operation and the length of stay in hospital”.
The risk drops by more than 50 percent
In general, complications following surgery – such as heart or bowel problems and pneumonia – occur in 30 percent of patients, and in elderly frail patients as many as 50 percent. However, the study results showed that training before the procedure can reduce the risk by 56 percent: “That is a significant amount.” At the same time, hospital stays fell by three days on average.
The positive effect was due to the change in what is known as “cardiorespiratory fitness”, a person’s endurance capacity. It indicates how well the body can absorb oxygen under stress and make it available to the muscles for energy production. The improvement in this value through training was significant compared to the fitness of patients in standard surgical care. “And this is also clinically relevant: we know that such an increase is associated with a lower risk of complications following surgery.”
Even if the training only lasts four weeks, it can significantly improve the outcome of the operation: “The benefits are great for all patient groups,” says Clifford.
In the next step, the scientists now want to investigate how such training programs can be implemented most easily and cost-effectively before an operation. Whether, for example, training with instructions at home would be sufficiently effective, or special publicly funded offers for groups. The study authors are convinced that the financing of such programs might save money in the long term, since the costs resulting from surgical complications and the subsequent hospital stays can be reduced.
The New Zealand researcher also emphasizes that training does not have to wait until an operation is due. “It’s never too late to improve fitness because it really makes a difference to the overall outcome of a surgical procedure.”
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