[Preconditioning of the lungs and circulation before visceral and thoracic surgical interventions]

Background: Estimation of the perioperative risk plays a decisive role in the surgical indications, particularly in view of the demographic change. For this reason, prehabilitation concepts for reducing perioperative risk nowadays play an increasingly important role.

Objective: Presentation of the current recommendations for preoperative diagnostics in thoracic surgical interventions as well as existing prehabilitation concepts and their practical applicability.

Material and methods: A selective review of the literature was carried out by searching the electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane Library and ISRCTN, including the guidelines of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) and the European Society of Thoracic Surgery (ESTS).

Results: Preconditioning includes the conservative treatment of underlying diseases, smoking cessation and prehabilitation. Prehabilitation is an increasingly pressing concept in routine clinical practice, even though the evidence is limited due to the very heterogeneous study situation. Overall, however, there is a tendency for positive effects on the quality of life and postoperative complications as well as convalescence.

Conclusion: In addition to preoperative diagnostics to assess the perioperative risk, effective preconditioning of patients is also necessary. For this an interdisciplinary approach including anesthesia, pneumology, psychotherapy and physiotherapy is necessary. In addition to the conservative medicinal optimization, prehabilitation concepts are gaining in importance and will certainly become established in routine clinical practice. From the surgical perspective, minimally invasive approaches and parenchyma-sparing resections also serve to reduce risks.