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Prehabilitation in the Older People: Current Developments

  • GERIATRIC ANESTHESIA (S AKHTAR, SECTION EDITOR)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This review aims to provide an overview of the current evidence for prehabilitation in frail, older surgical patients and to provide a pragmatic approach for implementation into routine perioperative care.

Recent Findings

There is increasing evidence for the use of prehabilitation strategies to improve postoperative outcomes. However, there is heterogeneity in the components of prehabilitation programs studied. Furthermore, they have not been robustly examined in a frail older population.

Summary

Older patients are frequently frail and at increased risk of adverse postoperative outcomes. This group may benefit from prehabilitation. A consistent approach to screening, assessment, and optimization across multiple domains using an interdisciplinary approach should be used to examine this robustly.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anaesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, 305 Grattan Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia

    Amanda Tsan Yue Siu, Tom Poulton, Hilmy Ismail & Bernhard Riedel

  2. Department of Anaesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Counties Manukau Health, Auckland, New Zealand

    Amanda Tsan Yue Siu

  3. Department of Critical Care, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Tom Poulton, Hilmy Ismail & Bernhard Riedel

  4. Health Services Research Centre, National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia, London, UK

    Tom Poulton

  5. Research Department of Targeted Intervention, Division of Surgery & Interventional Science, University College London, London, UK

    Tom Poulton

  6. The Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Bernhard Riedel & Jugdeep Dhesi

  7. Perioperative Medicine for Older People undergoing Surgery (POPS), Department of Ageing and Health, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    Jugdeep Dhesi

  8. School of Population Health & Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College, London, UK

    Jugdeep Dhesi

  9. Older Persons Assessment Unit, Bermondsey Wing, Guys Hospital, St. Thomas Street, London, SE1 9RT, UK

    Jugdeep Dhesi

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  1. Amanda Tsan Yue Siu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda Tsan Yue Siu.

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. Jugdeep Dhesi, Dr. Tom Poulton, and Dr. Amanda Tsan Yue Siu declare they have no conflict of interest. Prof. Bernhard Riedel and Dr. Hilmy Ismail are co-directors of Fit-4-Surgery Pvt Ltd, Australia.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Geriatric Anesthesia

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Siu, A.T.Y., Poulton, T., Ismail, H. et al. Prehabilitation in the Older People: Current Developments. Curr Anesthesiol Rep 11, 373–380 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40140-021-00496-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40140-021-00496-9

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