Effect of Multimodal Postoperative Rehabilitation on Functional and Cognitive Decline

Overview

Older adults, especially those with frailty, have a higher risk for complications, functional and cognitive decline after urgent surgery. These patients have their functional and physiological reserve reduced which makes them more vulnerable to the effects of being bedridden. The consequences are at multiple levels emphasizing the functional loss or cognitive impairment, longer stays, mortality and institutionalization, delirium, poor quality of life and increased use of resources related to health. Exercise training can prevent functional and cognitive decline and modify even the posterior trajectory

This study is a randomized clinical trial conducted in the Department of Surgery of a tertiary public hospital. Patients undergoing urgent abdominal surgery who meet inclusion criteria will be randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. A total of 218 elderly patients undergoing urgent abdominal surgery( control group=109 and intervention group 109) randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Patient recruitment will begin in the 4-day after the surgical procedure, which will be identified through the list of patients admitted to the hospital and assigned to the Department. The doctor who decides the inclusion in the intervention or control group will not be the attending physician. Patients or their families (if the patient has cognitive impairment) will be informed of the random inclusion in one group, but will not be informed as to which they belong. Randomization will be performed by applying http://www.randomizer.org/. The information in both the intervention group and the control group will obtained in four different stages: the initial visit and at months 1, 3 and 6 after hospital discharge. The intervention will consist of a multicomponent exercise training program, which will composed of supervised progressive resistance exercise training, aerobic and anaerobic exercises. This training period consist on 2 training sessions per week during 4 weeks after one week of discharge.