LAUSR

While its effect is controverted, multimodal pre-habilitation could be used to improve the postoperative course following colorectal cancer surgery. However, by increasing lean body mass, pre-habilitation could reduce the time needed to recover gastrointestinal (GI) functions. The aim was to assess the impact of pre-habilitation before colorectal cancer surgery on postoperative GI motility recovery. This is a matched retrospective study based on a prospective database including patients undergoing colorectal surgery without pre-habilitation (NPH) (2016–2018) and with pre-habilitation (PH group) (2018–2019). The main outcome measure was the time to GI-3 recovery (tolerance to solid food and flatus and/or stools). One hundred thirteen patients were included, 37 underwent pre-habilitation (32.7%). The patient’s age, the surgical procedure, the surgical access, the rate of synchronous metastasis, the rate of preoperative chemoradiotherapy, and the rate of stoma were more important in the PH group. Conversely, the rate of patients with an ASA score of > 2 was higher in the NPH group. By matching patients according to age, gender and surgical procedure, 84 patients were compared (61 in the NPH group and 23 in the PH group). The mean of GI-3 recovery was significantly lower in the PH group. The other endpoints were not significantly different but time to GI function recovery and medical morbidity tended to be higher in the NPH group. Compliance with the enhanced recovery program was significantly higher in the PH group. Pre-habilitation before colorectal cancer surgery reduced time to GI function recovery and may increase compliance with the enhanced recovery program.