Personalized Surgical Prehabilitation Program Offers Multiple Benefits

MONDAY, Nov. 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A personalized prehabilitation program significantly alters the immunome before surgery and is associated with improved preoperative physical function and fewer postoperative complications, according to a study published online Nov. 12 in JAMA Surgery.

Amélie Cambriel, M.D., from Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues conducted a prospective, randomized intervention trial from June 2020 to September 2022 involving 58 patients undergoing major elective surgery. Participants were randomly assigned to receive standard or personalized prehabilitation (30 and 28 individuals, respectively). The personalized group received two weekly one-on-one remote coaching sessions tailored to individual progress in terms of physical activity, nutrition, cognitive training, and mindfulness, while the standard group followed a paper-based program without individual support.

Fifty-four patients completed the study (27 per group). The researchers observed significant improvements in physical measures in the personalized group (e.g., median six-minute walk test, 496 versus 546 m before and after prehab) and fewer moderate-to-severe postoperative complications (four versus 11 Clavien-Dindo grade >1). Compared with baseline, there were profound and cell-type-specific immune alterations postprehabilitation (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.88). The standard group showed moderate clinical improvements and no immune changes.

“You can think of prehab as a way to train — not just your physical resilience, but also your immunological, neurocognitive, and psychological state, to really prepare for this major trauma of surgery,” senior author Brice Gaudillière, M.D., Ph.D., also from the Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed ties to SurgeCare; one author has a patent pending, licensed to SurgeCare.

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