Some prehabilitation programs include physical exercise training before elective major surgery. In a meta-analysis of 10 randomized trials with over 600 total patients undergoing open or video-assisted resection of non-small cell lung cancer, preoperative aerobic, resistance, and/or respiratory muscle training reduced the risk of postoperative pulmonary complications by over 50 percent and reduced postoperative hospital stay by more than two days. Similar results were noted in previous systematic reviews. Preoperative exercise training likely has benefits in selected patients undergoing lung resection, particularly those with poor functional capacity.
References:
Granger C, Cavalheri V. Preoperative exercise training for people with non-small cell lung cancer. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2022; 9:CD012020.