Preoperative rehabilitation for patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract

We read the manuscript with great interest, which is written by Watanabe and the colleagues, entitled “Preoperative rehabilitation for patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery: a retrospective cohort study” [1]. The authors analyzed 1934 patients from more than 100 acute-care hospitals across Japan and examined the association of preoperative rehabilitation on activities of daily living (ADL) and complications among patients with stage 1 and 2 colorectal cancer who underwent surgery. The authors concluded that short-term preoperative rehabilitation was associated with better ADL and fewer complications [1]. This study is of importance to discuss whether short-term preoperative rehabilitation is clinically important for patients with colorectal cancer who are going to receive surgical treatments. However, we have several concerns about their methodology and interpretation of the study findings as bellows: