2023-12-04 23:15:00
MONDAY, Dec. 4, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Is surgery coming? Mimicking the high-altitude breathing of mountain dwellers might make the procedure safer, a small study suggests.
It’s a form of what surgeons call “prehabilitation”: getting a patient’s body a little fitter beforehand to withstand the risks and rigors of surgery.
The researchers found that exposing patients to reduced levels of oxygen (“hypoxia”) for a week stimulated an increase in hemoglobin in the blood. British researchers believe this might help prevent complications surrounding surgery.
“We know that athletes can use hypoxic canopies over their bed to simulate exposure to altitude, and that altitude can induce performance benefits following two to three weeks, even in people who are extremely fit,” the author noted. lead author of the study, Dr. Thomas Smith, an anesthesiologist at King’s College London.
“We were interested in whether this approach might also benefit older patients before major surgery, who, due to sedentary lifestyles and low fitness levels, are at higher risk for negative postoperative outcomes,” he said in a news release. from college.
To test this theory, Smith’s group first selected eight volunteers, with an average age of 64, who had a sedentary lifestyle.
They were all sent to live for two weeks in a special “hypoxic house” in Ireland, where oxygen levels in the rooms are strictly controlled.
During one of the weeks of the study, the eight volunteers breathed normal air, but in a second week they breathed air that had oxygen levels equivalent to flying at an altitude of 8,000 feet.
Special cardiopulmonary tests showed no overall improvement in aerobic capacity following breathing the low-oxygen air, but there was an increase in blood hemoglobin, the team reported.
Hemoglobin carries oxygen throughout the body, allowing you to perform better under stress.
Although more studies are needed, “simulated altitude exposure might have potential advantages for older, sedentary patients” before surgery, Smith reasoned.
For example, patients might sleep at night for a few weeks in small “hypoxic canopy” tents that might be provided to patients, he explained.
The study appears in a recent issue of the journal Anaesthesia.
More information
There are more pre-surgical tips for patients at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
SOURCE: Kings College London, press release, November 30, 2023
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