ABSTRACT
Objective: To observe the efficacy of preoperative prehabilitation on nutritional status and body composition of patients with esophageal cancer after operation. Methods: A total of 100 patients with esophageal cancer were randomly divided into the study group A and the control group B. The study group received prehabilitation from the day they adimitted to hospital and the control group received common preoperative preparation. The preoperative baseline data and postoperative indicators including levels of serum albumin, prealbumin, transferrin were recorded the day admitted to hospital and the 1, 3, 7, 30th day after surgery. Record the prognosis of the patients (albumin supplementation, incidence of postoperative complications, ICU monitoring time, total cost of hospitalization). And the body composition was examined on the day admitted to hospital and the 7, 30th day after surgery with BIA. Results: The level of serum albumin, prealbumin, transferrin and body composition were no statistically significant difference between the study group and the control group. Compared with the control group, the level of prealbumin were significantly higher in the study group on the 1, 3, 7, 30th day after surgery. The level of serum albumin, transferrin were also significantly higher in study group on the 3, 7, 30th day after surgery. The body composition was no significant difference between the two groups on the 7th day postoperatively. However, the loss of body composition such as skeletal muscle, body water, intracellular water, protein level and body cell volume were less in the study group compared with the control group on the 30th day after surgery. The incidence of postoperative complications in the prehabilitation group, ICU monitoring time, and hospitalization costs were significantly less than those in the control group. Conclusion: Prehabilitation intervention can obviously improve the nutritional status and the prognosis of the patients with esophageal cancer, and reduce the loss degree of their body composition.