Role of nutrition in urological prehabilitation

Abstract

Nutritional intervention plays an important role in prehabilitation, amultimodal concept designed to improve the physical condition of the patient prior to treatment in order to influence the outcome of surgery. The focus is on reducing the postoperative complication rate, while simultaneously shortening the hospital stay and the rehabilitation phase. The nutritional status should be optimized through individual counseling and the targeted intake of calories, protein, and nutritional supplements. Agood nutritional status contributes to the strengthening of the immune system and improves wound healing. Especially after surgery, muscle mass declines rapidly. Adequate protein intake accompanying strength exercises can best preserve muscle and promote development of muscular fitness during prehabilitation. Despite the positive effects of nutritional interventions, prehabilitation programs with nutritional components in uro-oncology are rare and the evidence of the programs is therefore insufficient. Results from initial studies appear promising, but further prospective, randomized studies of high quality and with defined program content on the various types of cancer are needed.