RT  - Signa Vitae
ID  - 10.22514/sv.2026.075
T1  - Unmet needs in surgical prehabilitation: a narrative review
A1  - Federico Mattia Oliva
A1  - Filippo D’Amico
A1  - Noemi De Piccoli
A1  - Lisa Notarianni
A1  - Marta Veneziano
A1  - Laura Fossati
A1  - Matteo Ghezzi
A1  - Benedetta Chiodi
A1  - Cristina Nakhnoukh
A1  - Stefano Turi
A1  - PREHAB Study Group Collaborators
K1  - Prehabilitation; Anesthesia; Surgery; Cancer; Preoperative care
YR  - null
SP  - 1
AB  - <p>To date, surgery remains the only curative treatment for many pathological conditions, and the number of surgical procedures is expected to increase in the coming years. Continuous advances in medical care now allow invasive procedures to be planned even for elderly and frail patients who were previously considered unsuitable for surgery. Combined with the general aging of the population, this has resulted in an increase in the number of frail patients undergoing surgery, who are more prone to postoperative complications and significant functional decline. It is, therefore, crucial to utilize the entire preoperative period not only to stratify preoperative risk but, shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach, also to optimize patients’ functional capacity through multimodal prehabilitation programs. After an initial assessment, surgical patients should receive a personalized, multidisciplinary optimization program aimed at improving their physical, nutritional, and psychological status. Clinical and scientific interest in prehabilitation has grown substantially in recent years. However, several unmet needs about prehabilitation still remain. In this narrative review we examine and discuss the current state of the art in prehabilitation, focusing specifically on unanswered questions and possible future developments.</p>