Evaluating the therapeutic quality of prehabilitation programmes in patients scheduled for colorectal surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM: The aim of this work was to evaluate whether the therapeutic quality of exercise prehabilitation programmes is associated with their effectiveness to preoperatively improve aerobic fitness and reduce postoperative complications and length of hospital stay in patients scheduled for colorectal surgery. METHOD: Three electronic databases (PubMed, Embase and CINAHL) were systematically searched (up to October 2023) for randomized controlled trials that investigated the effects of prehabilitation before colorectal resection. Methodological quality and therapeutic quality were assessed using, respectively, the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool and the i-CONTENT tool. Studies were divided into four subgroups based on the estimated risk of bias and risk of ineffectiveness. RESULTS: Fourteen studies were included, comprising 986 patients. Meta-analysis showed that, in general, prehabilitation improved preoperative aerobic fitness but did not improve postoperative outcomes. No differences were found between the four subgroups; however, only one study (7%) had a low risk of bias in combination with a low risk of ineffectiveness. CONCLUSION: The fact that only one study had a low risk of bias in combination with a low risk of ineffectiveness precluded us from establishing an association between therapeutic quality and the effectiveness of prehabilitation on postoperative outcomes. The quality of future prehabilitation research with exercise interventions should be improved by using an assessment tool during the design phase of prehabilitation programmes.