Prehabilitation of Elderly Patients With Frailty Syndrome Before Elective Surgery (PRAEP-GO)

Prehabilitation of Elderly Frail or Pre-frail Patients Prior to Elective Surgery - a Randomized Controlled Multicenter Study (PRAEP-Go)

The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of a shared decision-making conference and three-week prehabilitation program on the outcome "care dependency" one year after surgery. The cost-effectiveness of the intervention will also be evaluated in this N = 1400 patient, national multicenter, assessor-blinded, randomized, pragmatic, controlled, parallel-group, clinical trial.

The objective of PRÄP-GO is to establish and employ a suitable preoperative case-care management system to improve the short and long-term outcome of elderly surgical patients with signs of a frailty syndrome, improving postoperative quality of life and reducing care dependency by a three-week individualized prehabilitation program.

Study patients:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age ≥ 70 years
• Consent by Patient or Legal Representative
• Elective surgery planned
• Expected anesthesia duration≥ 60 min
• Statutory health insurance
• Frailty syndrome (≥1 positive out of 5 standardized parameters according to the Physical Frailty Phenotype according to Fried et. al.)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Severe cardiac or pulmonary disease (NYHA IV, Gold IV)
• Intracranial interventions
• Moribund patients (palliative situation)
• Not enough language skills
• Participation in another interventional rehabilitation study or other interventional clinical trial that has not been approved by the study management committee (Exception: Participation in adjuvant intervention study)