Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT04498208

Immune Modulation by Enhanced vs Standard Prehabilitation Program Before Major Surgery

Over 30 million surgeries are performed annually in the US. Up to 30% of surgical patients experience delayed surgical recovery, marked by prolonged post-surgical pain, opioid consumption, and functional impairment, which contributes $8 billion annually to US health care costs. Novel interventions that improve the resolution of pain, minimize opioid exposure, and accelerate functional recovery after surgery are urgently needed.

Multi-modal pre-operative optimization programs (or "prehab") integrating exercise, nutrition, and stress reduction have been shown to safely and effectively improve outcomes after surgery. However, no objective biological markers assess prehab effectiveness and are able to tailor prehab programs to individual patients. Surgery is a profound immunological perturbation, during which a complex network of innate and adaptive immune cells is mobilized to organize the recovery process of wound healing, tissue repair, and pain resolution. As such, the in-depth assessment of a patient's immune system before surgery is a promising approach to tailor prehab programs to modifiable biological markers associated with surgical recovery. The primary goal of this clinical trial is to determine the effect of a personalized prehab program on patients immunological status before surgery.

Completed

Looking for future studies?

Notify Me

Key information

Conditions

Surgery Behavior Digestive System Diseases Female Urogenital Diseases Female Urogenital Diseases and Pregnancy Complications Gastrointestinal Disease Gastrointestinal Diseases Genital Diseases Genital Diseases, Female Gynecologic Disease Immune System and Related Disorders Male Urogenital Diseases Motor Activity Preoperative Care Respiratory Tract Diseases Thoracic Diseases Urogenital Diseases Urologic Diseases Urological Disease

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Stanford University

Stanford, California, 94305, United States

About this study

The study design is a prospective monocenter single-blinded randomized controlled trial in patients undergoing elective major abdominal surgery.

  • Patients will be recruited during the surgical consultation, at least 14 days prior to surgery. If they choose to enroll, they will undergo randomization on the day of enrollment.
  • Prehabilitation (Day 0): personalized or standard prehabilitation program will be proposed to the patients for a period of 2 to 6 weeks. Immunological, nutritional, physical, cognitive, anxiety and quality of life status will be quantified at baseline by previously trained personnel.
  • From the beginning (Day 0) to the end of the prehabilitation program (Day 14 to Day 42): every 7 days, a compliance questionnaire will be filled by phone, by a trained member of the research team blinded to the treatment arm of the study
  • End of the prehabilitation period (Day 14 to Day 42): Immunological, nutritional, physical, cognitive and anxiety status after prehabilitation will be recorded by a trained member of the research team blinded to the treatment arm of the study.
  • Surgery (Day S)
  • Post operative period
  • From Day S (2 hours after surgery end) to discharge from the hospital, length of stay, pain and adverse clinical events will be measured and recorded.
  • Immunological status will be assessed at Day S+1 by blood draw.
  • Cognitive function, neuropathic pain and quality of life will be assessed at Day S + 30.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Adult patients (≥ 18 years)
  • Competent to provide informed consent
  • Undergoing major elective surgery under general anesthesia in ≥14 days from enrollment (abdominal, thoracic, plastic and neurosurgeries).
  • Fluent in English

Exclusion criteria

  • Premorbid conditions or orthopedic impairments with contraindications to exercise
  • Cognitive disabilities defined as evolutive neurological or neurodegenerative disease
  • ASA score 4 or higher or patient under palliative care
  • Illiteracy (inability to read the English language).
  • Expected length of stay at hospital < 48 hours
  • Patient under tutorship or curatorship
  • Pregnant or breast-feeding woman
  • Absence of informed consent or request to not participate to the study

Treatment and study plan

Physical Prehabilitation

Behavioral

First, an evaluation of patient's aerobic capacity, functional mobility, functional strength, ambulation, fall risk, and overall mobility will be done by a trained member of the research team. Based on their functional level and preexisting conditions, therapeutic exercises will be recommended to optimize their strength, endurance, flexibility, and functional mobility in preparation for surgery. Decisions about the interventions are based on the assessment, individual patient characteristics, environmental factors, surgical type, and monitoring of the client's response and progress. Weekly sessions are 30-45 minutes long to monitor the client's response and progress their program. Based on their response to exercise (evaluated also by 2 apps: Timed Walk App and Smart Metronome & Tuner App), re-evaluation via the assessments described above, change their plan of care (alter frequency, resistance, exercises) or discontinuation of treatment could be decided.

Stress Reduction Prehabilitation

Behavioral

Participants will have the opportunity to learn techniques for mindfulness that have been established to reduce stress and assist with pain management with a member of the research team. Patients will be offered to listen to audio recording of relaxation sessions. Each session contains a relaxation technique that the patient practices while listening to the recording. Then the technique is used the next as a baseline to introduce a new technique more advanced. For some patients who struggle with the techniques the program will be adapted. Patients will choose 2 or 3 techniques and work on them.

Cognitive Prehabilitation

Behavioral

Cognitive prehabilitation will consist on the daily use of Lumosity training program, an already existing free app built to increase memory skills. The program proposed by Lumosity is tailored to each patient. The use of Lumosity will be monitored at each in-person session. Patients will be expected to complete at least three 5-minute sessions of Lumosity training per day.

Nutrition Prehabilitation

Behavioral

Nutrition prehabilitation will involve transitioning the patient to the Mediterranean diet with targets regarding hydration and the proportion of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats the patient will consume in a given day. This nutritional program is flexible, and it allows for specific physician and nutritionist-recommended dietary needs to be incorporated. The patient is also given tools to encourage success in healthier eating, including recipes, sample menus, healthy restaurant options, meal kit options, and local CSA box options

Primary outcomes

  1. Composite immunological score

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Composite immunological score containing a combination of blood immune cell frequencies and intracellular signaling responses. This score will be normalized to "baseline" (i.e. before prehabilitation) score for each patient.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Proportion of compliant patients

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Patient's compliance to prehabilitation programs will be evaluated using a modified Rehabilitation Adherence Measure scale, that will be filled by phone every 7 days during the prehabilitation program, i.e. 2 to 6 times by patient. Compliant patient will be defined by a mean score >= 8/10.

  2. 6 Min Walk Test

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Changes in physical status will be examined using 6 Min Walk Test. The evaluation should be based on differences between pre- and post prehabilitation performance.

  3. Timed Up and Go Test

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Changes in physical status will be examined using Timed Up and Go Test. The evaluation should be based on differences between pre- and post prehabilitation performance.

  4. Five Times Sit to Stand Test

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Changes in physical status will be examined using Five Times Sit to Stand Test. The evaluation should be based on differences between pre- and post prehabilitation performance.

  5. Wall Squat Test

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Changes in physical status will be examined using Wall Squat Test. The evaluation should be based on differences between pre- and post prehabilitation performance.

  6. Body Mass Index

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Body Mass Index will be recorded. The evaluation should be based on differences between pre- and post prehabilitation performance

  7. Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Prevalence and global severity of anxiety will be evaluated using the APAIS (Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale). The evaluation should be based on differences between pre- and post prehabilitation performance.

  8. Pain Catastrophizing Scale

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Prevalence and global severity of anxiety will be evaluated using the Pain Catastrophizing Scale. The evaluation should be based on differences between pre- and post prehabilitation performance.

  9. Changes in diet

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Mediterranean Diet Score will be collected. The evaluation should be based on differences between pre- and post prehabilitation performance. A high intake of Mediterranean foods: cereals, legumes, fruit, vegetables, fish, Mon-unsaturated fatty acids to Saturated fatty acids (M/S) ratio, and wine were scored positive (1) and a high intake of the non-Mediterranean foods: dairy and meat negative (0). The score ranged from 0 to 9 and the higher the score the better the compliance to a traditional Mediterranean diet.

  10. Changes in cognitive functions

    Time frame: immediately preoperatively

    Cognitive functions will evaluated by the qMCI test. The evaluation should be based on differences between pre- and post prehabilitation performance.

  11. Incidence of postoperative complications

    Time frame: Postoperatively through to 30 days after surgery

    Postoperative complications will be scored by the Comprehensive Complication Index. The Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI®) is based on the complication grading by Clavien-Dindo Classification and implements every occurred complication after an intervention. The overall morbidity is reflected on a scale from 0 (no complication) to 100 (death).

  12. Postoperative pain

    Time frame: Postoperatively through to 7 days after surgery

    Pain scores will be assessed daily by the patient-reported Visual Analog Scale. Visual analog scale to assess the perceived stress on a horizontal, non-calibrated line of 10 cm, ranging from very low (0) to very high (10)

  13. Cumulative opioid consumption

    Time frame: Postoperatively through to day 7

    Cumulative opioid consumption will be obtained from the patients' charts up to 7 days after surgery or discharge from hospital if earlier.

  14. Neuropathic pain

    Time frame: 30 days after surgery

    Neuropathic pain will be measured by the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Neuropathic Pain Quality scale (PROMIS-PQ-Neuro). The questionnaire contains 5 items questions. Scores are based on patient responses to questions about pain intensity. 0 indicates no pain; 5 indicates the most pain imaginable. The total score may be up to 25.

  15. Hospital length of stay

    Time frame: 30 days after surgery

    Hospital length of stay assessed from patients' medical administrative data in days

  16. Changes in quality of life

    Time frame: 30 days after surgery

    Quality of life evaluated thanks to the SF-36 scale is a 36-item patient-reported questionnaire that covers eight health domains: physical functioning (10 items), bodily pain (2 items), role limitations due to physical health problems (4 items), role limitations due to personal or emotional problems (4 items), emotional well-being (5 items), social functioning (2 items), energy/fatigue (4 items), and general health perceptions (5 items). Scores for each domain range from 0 to 100, with a higher score defining a more favorable health state. Results will be normalized on "baseline" (before prehab) scores.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Stanford University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Immune System Modulation by Enhanced vs Standard Prehabilitation Program in Patients Undergoing Elective Major Surgery - a Prospective Monocentric Randomized Single-blinded Controlled Trial

Important dates

Study start
2020
Primary completion
2024
Study completion
2024
First posted
Aug 4, 2020
Registry last updated
Apr 23, 2024

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Related clinical trials

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.