Prehabilitation prior to kidney transplantation: Results from a pilot study

Prehabilitation is the process of enhancing preoperative functional capacity to improve tolerance for the upcoming stressor; it was associated with improved postoperative outcomes in a handful of studies, but never evaluated in transplantation. Kidney transplant (KT) candidates may be uniquely suited for prehabilitation because they experience a profound loss of functional capacity while waiting years on dialysis. To better understand the feasibility and effectiveness of prehabilitation in KT , we conducted a pilot study of center‐based prehabilitation for candidates; this intervention consisted of weekly physical therapy sessions at an outpatient center with at‐home exercises. We enrolled 24 participants; 18 participated in prehabilitation (75% of enrolled; 17% of eligible). 61% were male, 72% were African American, and mean age = 52 (SD = 12.9); 71% of participants had lower‐extremity impairment, and 31% were frail. By 2 months of prehabilitation, participants improved their physical activity by 64% ( P  = 0.004) based on accelerometry. Participants reported high satisfaction. Among 5 prehabilitation participants who received KT during the study, length of stay was shorter than for age‐, sex‐, and race‐matched control (5 vs 10 days; RR = 0.69; 95% CI:0.50‐0.94; P  = 0.02). These pilot study findings suggest that prehabilitation is feasible in pretransplant patients and may potentially be a strategy to improve post‐ KT outcomes.