What exactly is prehabilitation
Although prehabilitation is used in some countries for a large number of indications, very different concepts are applied for this.
Positive care effects for the patient and a reduction in healthcare costs
Pre-surgical rehabilitation, also known as prehabilitation, is a multidisciplinary program that reduces the consequences and side effects of elective surgical procedures and reduces recovery time. Its aim is to support patients who are scheduled for an operation to find their way back to everyday life and find new strength as quickly as possible1 2. Doctors with experience in pre-habilitation often compare an operation with the stress of a marathon run2.
The patient is exposed to multiple stress factors before, during and after the surgery:
Physical stress, especially from the invasive procedure
All these stress factors can prolong the regeneration process and lead to complications. However, while athletes prepare extensively for a marathon run, such systematic preparation programs for patients are only available to a very limited extent today, although the positive care effects for patients and a reduction in healthcare costs have already been shown in multiple clinical studies3 4 5.
And how does pre-habilitation work?
Postoperatively, physical resilience increases again, and the patients return to the preoperative level after full recovery after discharge. In some patients, especially those at risk, even the preoperative waiting period can result in reduced performance and the stress of surgery puts these patients in critical condition, which prolongs the postoperative recovery period and increases the risk of complications.
Prehabilitation has a positive influence on pre-operative performance, which can prevent a drop in performance down to the critical zone. As a result, pre-habilitation patients have a much better foundation for recovering more quickly, despite any negative side effects of a surgical intervention. The critical performance zone is avoided so that the patients can manage their everyday life without outside help. This leads to a reduction in complications and an improvement in postoperative results and thus enhanced recovery1.
Footnote:
1 Punt et al, 2017; 2 Singh et al, 2019; 3 Gentry et al, 2020; 4 Sánchez-Iglesias et al, 2020; 5 Minnella et al, 2021
How does the digital PrehabM work?
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