Yahoo! Sports' Mike Oz (that's really his name) predicts that the Pirates will win the 2016 World Series over the Astros. Mark Townsend declares Cubs over the Rangers. (Nobody's picked the Indians, Mets or Yankees.) But predicting the outcome of a sports season is more guesswork than science. We'll just have to wait and see.
That wait-and-see attitude is unnecessary, however, when predicting what can improve the outcome of major surgery! Dr. Mike and his colleague Dr. Ruchir Gupta, from Stony Brook University School of Medicine, explored more than 12 studies that looked at patients' pre-op exercise capacity and post-op outcomes. They discovered that following major surgery, overall there was a 1.2 percent mortality rate for patients with a normal heart-recovery rate or HRR (a measure of exercise capacity and cardio health). But among those with an abnormal recovery rate, 24.3 percent died following their big-time surgery. And among the 60-plus crowd? Fifty-two percent with abnormal HRR following major surgery died, while only 19 percent of those with a normal HRR did.
It seems to indicate that going through an exercise intervention program and attaining a normal HHR before you're scheduled for big-time surgery is key for your best outcome! The docs' next step: Conducting tests to see what level of pre-op exercise produces the best results.
So, until more data are available, talk with your doc about what type of exercise makes sense for you pre-op, and build a program to normalize you HRR and overall strength before you go under the knife.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
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