Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40745563›Full record

ArticlePerioperative medicine (London, England)2025

Prehabilitation before pancreatic surgery in the Netherlands: insights from a nationwide survey among pancreatic surgeons.

Lis S M Hoeijmakers, Heleen Driessens, Carlijn I Buis, Steven W M Olde Damink, Joost M Klaase, Marcel den Dulk

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Perioperative medicine (London, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Nutritional prehabilitation strategies in abdominal surgery.Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care · 2026
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Lis S M Hoeijmakers *Department of Surgery, Institute of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism (NUTRIM), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Heleen Driessens *Division of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation, Department of Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. h.driessens@umcg.nl.
Carlijn I BuisDivision of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation, Department of Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Steven W M Olde DaminkDepartment of Surgery, Institute of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism (NUTRIM), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Joost M Klaase *Division of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation, Department of Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Marcel den Dulk *Department of Surgery, Institute of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism (NUTRIM), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPrehabilitation programs are increasingly used to optimize patients before pancreatic surgery. A prehabilitation program should include screening, assessment, intervention, and reassessment of multiple patient-related modifiable risk factors. Consensus on the content of a prehabilitation program and which patients should receive prehabilitation is missing. This study aims to assess current preoperative screening practices, surgeons' opinions, and knowledge of prehabilitation and identify existing prehabilitation programs for pancreatic surgery in the Netherlands.

methodsA nationwide descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. All 15 hospitals providing pancreatic surgery in the Netherlands were included, and an online survey was sent to only one pancreatic surgeon per hospital. The survey was developed by the authors of this paper and based on a previously published survey for prehabilitation in colorectal surgery. Logical ordering and adaptive questioning were used.

resultsAll 15 surgeons responded, and they were all familiar with the term prehabilitation. Twelve hospitals (80%) offered prehabilitation, and in the majority of hospitals (7/12), prehabilitation was offered to all patients. Prehabilitation programs included multiple domains, whereby physical fitness and nutrition were most often included and mental resilience was the least often included domain. Each hospital implemented a different prehabilitation program in terms of included domains, screening methods, and interventions. For the majority of the domains, two or more different forms of screening and three or more different interventions were used across hospitals. A total of 53.3% of surgeons were willing to postpone the surgery of pancreatic malignancies up to a maximum of 4 weeks, 20% up to a maximum of 6 weeks, and 26.7% as long as necessary to optimize the patients' preoperative overall fitness.

conclusionsPancreatic surgeons in the Netherlands have knowledge of prehabilitation, but high variability exists in current practice regarding prehabilitation programs. There is a need for a uniform standardized prehabilitation program to be able to implement prehabilitation in the standard preoperative care pathway and enable comparison of results across hospitals.

Indexed as

Pancreatic surgeryPrehabilitationPreoperative optimizationPreoperative screening

Identifiers

PMID40745563
PMCPMC12312366

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.