Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Efficacy of prehabilitation interventions on exercise capacity of patients undergoing major abdominal and cardiothoracic surgery: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors' conclusion
Moderate-intensity exercise, followed by multimodal exercise, should be considered the most effective strategy for improving exercise capacity in people undergoing major abdominal and cardiothoracic surgery. Exercise plus nutrition is the most effective intervention to improve 6MWT recovery postsurgery, followed by moderate-intensity exercise and multimodal interventions.
Study context
- Population
- People undergoing major abdominal or cardiothoracic surgery38 studies
- Comparison
- Prehabilitation components vs control
- Outcome
- Exercise capacity (6MWT) presurgery
- Follow-up
- Presurgery
Methodological detailspairwise and network meta-analyses, RoB 2.0, Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE), Literature search from baseline to September 2025
- Pairwise and network meta-analyses
- RoB 2.0
- GRADE
- Literature search from baseline to September 2025
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Exercise capacity presurgery
ES
0.93
95 % CI 0.46–1.40
Moderate-intensity exercise · greatest effect
ES
0.50
95 % CI 0.15–0.86
Multimodal
Further pooled results
| Outcome | ES (95 % CI) |
|---|---|
| 6MWT recovery postsurgeryExercise + nutrition vs Control · greatest effect | 1.08 (0.00–2.16) |
| 6MWT recovery postsurgeryModerate-intensity exercise vs Control | 0.55 (0.08–1.01) |
| 6MWT recovery postsurgeryMultimodal vs Control | 0.35 (0.03–0.68) |
Original publication
Efficacy of prehabilitation interventions on exercise capacity of patients undergoing major abdominal and cardiothoracic surgery: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Clin Anesth. Published 3 January 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →