Preoperative 6-minute walk distance is associated with postoperative complications in patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal cancer surgery

Objective: The 6-min walk test (6MWT) is a simple and valid method to evaluate cardiopulmonary function. We performed this prospective study in patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal cancer surgery to explore the association between preoperative 6MWT performance and overall postoperative complications.Methods: This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03711526). The study consecutively enrolled patients receiving laparoscopic gastrointestinal cancer surgery in our institution. All patients performed the 6MWT upon recruitment and received 30 days of postoperative follow-up. The primary outcome was overall complications, defined by >= grade I Clavien-Dindo (CD) classification (2004) complications. Multivariable logistic regression was used to test the association of 6-min walk distance (6MWD) with the outcome.Results: A total of 184 patients were included in the final analyses. In the 37 (20.1 %) patients with overall complications, the mean (standard deviation) preoperative 6MWD was 469.1 (86.8) m. In patients with no complications, the 6MWD was 502.6 (90.2) m. The mean difference was 33.5 m (95 % confidence interval, 1.3, 65.7; P = 0.042). A longer preoperative 6MWD was associated with a lower odds of developing postoperative complications (odds ratio, 0.994 per meter increase; 95 % confidence interval, 0.989, 0.999; p = 0.023). Conclusion: This study indicated an association between the preoperative 6MWD and postoperative complications in patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal cancer surgery.

Automated summary

This study found an association between preoperative 6-min walk distance and postoperative complications in patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal cancer surgery.