Objectives: At our hospital, prehabilitation has been provided to patients undergoing esophageal cancer surgery since October 2019. This study explored the effects of prehabilitation based on the accumulated database of these patients.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 621 patients who underwent thoracoscopic subtotal esophagectomy. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed using postoperative hospital stay as the objective variable and age, sex, body mass index (BMI), preoperative ventilatory impairment, left ventricular ejection fraction, preoperative hemoglobin A1c, clinical stage, histological type, operative time, surgical blood loss, postoperative complications, and prehabilitation as explanatory variables. We also performed a multivariate analysis in the subgroup of patients who developed postoperative complications and adjusted for possible confounding factors. Postoperative complications and postoperative hospital stay were compared between patients without (n=416) and with (n=205) prehabilitation.

Results: Postoperative complications, age, blood loss, BMI, and ventilatory impairment influenced the overall length of hospital stay. When the analysis was restricted to patients with complications, prehabilitation was added to that list of factors as a substitute for BMI. The rate of postoperative complications was not affected by prehabilitation (P=0.1675). The number of hospital days did not change with or without prehabilitation in the overall population, but when restricted to patients with complications, the number of hospital days was significantly decreased in the prehabilitation group (P=0.0328).

Conclusions: Prehabilitation as a perioperative approach has the potential to reduce the postoperative length of hospital stay in patients undergoing esophageal cancer surgery, and active intervention is recommended.