WASHINGTON, DC: A new way for surgeons to know how well their patients are regaining physical function after a major abdominal operation could be as simple as patients wearing a fitness wristband to count their steps. Results of a new study, presented at the 2016 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons, show that monitoring patients' postoperative functional recovery using a commercially available, wireless activity tracker is feasible, and strongly correlates with patients' reported postoperative complications.

"This wireless technology, which many people use, has great potential to detect real-time changes in surgical patients' functional recovery," said principal investigator Virginia Sun, PhD, RN, an assistant professor in the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif.

Data from the device, combined with online patient surveys, could help the surgical team identify patients who are at high risk of having complications, so that health care providers could intervene early, Dr. Sun suggested.
The investigators conducted this preliminary feasibility study to determine whether surgical patients would wear the activity monitor for several weeks. They studied 20 cancer patients who were scheduled for major abdominal operations, including surgical removal of part of the liver (liver resection) and removal of colorectal, gastric, and pancreatic tumors. The patients' average age was 55.

Study participants received a wrist-worn activity tracker, which counted their daily steps for three to seven days before their operation as well as during their hospitalization and for two weeks after discharge from the hospital. Most patients were reportedly not already wearing a similar high-tech pedometer.

The researchers found a high adherence to wearing the activity tracker at all times. Approximately 88 percent of patients always wore the device before their operation, and about 82 percent did so postoperatively, they reported.

Participants also completed a Web-based survey of their symptoms and quality of life before the operation, at discharge, and for two weeks after discharge. At the end of the study, patients rated their satisfaction with the usefulness and timeliness of the wireless monitoring program. Patient satisfaction scores were high, averaging four of a possible five points, according to the abstract.

"We believe our study is the first to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating use of this popular wireless real-time technology with postoperative quality-of-life data," Dr. Sun said.

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