The Importance of Prehabilitation Before Surgery
Prehabilitation has numerous benefits for pre-surgery patients. Prehabilitation is an individualized exercise conditioning program that prepares the body for the stresses of surgery, manages symptoms, and helps restore function in the injured area as much as possible prior to surgery. Prehabilitation, or “prehab,” works on improving a patient’s movement, flexibility, and strength before surgery to set them up for a successful recovery after surgery. Prehab has been shown to shorten recovery time and a patient’s hospital stay, reduce post-surgical pain and inflammation, and increase strength, stamina, and mobility.
What is Prehabilitation?
Prehabilitation, or preventative rehabilitation, is an individualized exercise conditioning program that prepares the body for the stresses of surgery, manages symptoms, and helps restore function in the injured area as much as possible prior to surgery. Often, the area of the body that requires surgery undergoes a loss of strength, mobility, and function after injury. If the injured area is swollen, this can contribute to atrophy and loss of strength in the muscles around the injury, causing reduced movement and flexibility. The neuromuscular activity at the injury site can also be altered, decreasing muscle activation. Overall, this can lead to deconditioning of the body as the patient waiting for surgery engages in less movement.
Prehabilitation, or “prehab,” works on improving a patient’s movement, flexibility, and strength before surgery to set them up for a successful recovery after surgery. During prehab, the physical therapist assesses the patient for any deficits in strength, stability, range of motion, and balance that could impede their ability to recover from surgery. The therapist establishes a baseline assessment of functional capacity and designs a customized prehab exercise program for the patient to address these deficits as much as possible prior to surgery. The exercise program generally involves a combination of strength and aerobic exercises to build muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness as well as functional task training.
Benefits of Prehabilitation Before Joint Replacement Surgery
Prehabilitation has numerous benefits for pre-surgery patients, particularly those awaiting joint replacement surgery. In fact, there is strong data supporting the benefits of prehab before a knee replacement surgery. In one study, almost 20% of those who participated in prehab improved so much that they canceled their surgery. Other patients who went on to have knee replacement surgery after prehab in the study had shortened hospital stays and improved pain immediately after surgery. Numerous studies have shown that patients who complete strength, aerobic, and flexibility exercises before joint replacement surgery are less likely to need inpatient rehabilitation and typically recover faster. The benefits of prehab can be seen 24 hours after surgery, with patients achieving major milestones that allow them to return home faster than those who did not complete a prehab program.
Research on hip replacement surgery prehab reveals that prehab patients had improved pain after surgery, enhanced functioning after hip replacement, and after six weeks, were more likely to be able to go home after surgery rather than a rehab facility. A four-to-six-week prehab program before ACL reconstruction surgery has been shown to improve quadriceps strength, enhance range of motion, and decrease the rate of re-injury. A study of 523 patients who went through prehab prior to surgery vs. 1000 patients who did not receive prehab revealed that prehab patients were more likely to go straight home rather than to a skilled nursing facility post-surgery and their total cost of care up to three months after surgery was, on average, $3,200 less than those who did not receive prehab.
Prehabilitation helps patients strengthen their muscles and improve flexibility before surgery so that they have a head start on the recovery process and a stronger baseline of strength and mobility going into surgery. Stronger muscles also heal faster and can tolerate exercise and stretching better. Prehab also helps reduce the risk of surgical complications. This is because complications normally arise after surgery because pre-existing conditions weaken or strain muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Without prehab to address these issues, the body’s tissues must recover from injury, inflammation, and surgical trauma simultaneously.
7 Benefits of Prehabilitation
Prehab reduces recovery time.
Prehab minimizes post-surgical pain and inflammation.
Prehab increases strength and stamina.
Prehab improves joint mobility and range of motion.
Prehab reduces surgery complications.
Prehab reduces patient anxiety about surgery.
Prehab shortens your hospital stay.
Are you preparing for an upcoming surgery? Work with a physical therapist to begin prehab and go into surgery stronger and with greater confidence!
