NIO director on prehabilitation in Poland

What is prehabilitation?

Prehabilitation is nothing more than supportive management, preparing the patient for treatment. It has made its home in surgery, where we especially talk about this preparation, i.e. rehabilitation, assessment of the patient's condition and treatment of comorbidities (if any, so that they do not limit the surgical possibilities), but we also talk about nutritional treatment, i.e. assessment of the patient's nutritional status and, if necessary, implementation of nutritional therapy.

Prehabilitation has taken root at the Institute in a very important department for us, namely radiotherapy. It was introduced there by Professor Dorota Kiprian. We are very proud of this, because we are already seeing very big results.

The scope of prehabilitation, regardless of the intention with which we implement it, also includes psychological care, that is, support that helps the patient prepare for treatment, which is certainly not easy, requires a lot of resilience, but above all requires the support of the environment.

I understand that prehabilitation has taken root at the Institute, and how do you assess whether prehabilitation is thought of at all in Poland?

Yes, many centers are opening prehabilitation offices, and it is actually a multidisciplinary procedure. Prehabilitation helps reduce the side effects of surgery. The patient goes through this therapeutic stage more easily. I have talked about nutrition, rehabilitation, and therefore physical preparation of the patient for surgery, which often involves a multi-day stay within the confines of the bed. Of course, prehabilitation does not end when the patient begins therapy. Depending on the type of therapy, it continues with psychological support or rehabilitation already at the patient's bedside in those first days after surgery and nutritional therapy.