Early ambulation after general and digestive surgery: a retrospective single-center study

Purpose Postoperative early ambulation contributes to the improvement of postoperative outcomes; however, the definition of “early” ambulation is unclear. In this study, we aimed to define desirable “early” ambulation after digestive surgery in terms of short-term outcomes and to identify the risk f...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Langenbeck's archives of surgery 2020-08, Vol.405 (5), p.613-622
Main Authors: Nishijima, Mizuki, Baba, Hayato, Murotani, Kenta, Tokai, Ryutaro, Watanabe, Toru, Hirano, Katsuhisa, Shibuya, Kazuto, Hojo, Shozo, Matsui, Koshi, Yoshioka, Isaku, Okumura, Tomoyuki, Fujii, Tsutomu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abdominal Surgery
Cardiac Surgery
General Surgery
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Original Article
Thoracic Surgery
Traumatic Surgery
Vascular Surgery
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose Postoperative early ambulation contributes to the improvement of postoperative outcomes; however, the definition of “early” ambulation is unclear. In this study, we aimed to define desirable “early” ambulation after digestive surgery in terms of short-term outcomes and to identify the risk factors for delayed ambulation. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 718 patients who underwent major digestive surgery between January 2016 and May 2019 in our hospital. The timing of first ambulation after surgery was reviewed and correlated with short-term postoperative outcomes and perioperative patient characteristics. Results Of 718 patients, 55% underwent first ambulation at postoperative day (POD) 1, 31% at POD 2, and the remaining patients at POD 3 or later. Whereas short-term outcomes were equivalent among patients with first ambulation at POD 1 and those at POD 2, patients who delayed ambulation until POD 3 or after had an increased incidence of infectious complications ( P  = 0.004), longer hospitalization ( P  
ISSN:1435-2443
1435-2451
DOI:10.1007/s00423-020-01925-9