ERAS and early mobilisation: a 2022 review
2022 review of early mobilisation in ERAS pathways: complications, walking again, hospital stay. A summary, not a new study.
Blog · Steps and oxygenation
Microcirculation and wound healing: a handbook chapter
Handbook chapter: microcirculation carries oxygen and immune mediators to the surgical wound and supports its healing. A summary, not a new study.
A chapter of a handbook on microcirculation, “Microcirculation in Wound Healing”, published by Springer Nature, describes the role of microcirculation in surgical healing: it carries to the repairing tissue the oxygen and the proliferative and immune mediators it needs.
The wound as a high-metabolic-demand organ
The chapter offers an analogy: the surgical wound is an extra, temporary “organ” with higher metabolic needs than the surrounding tissue. It requires an efficient microcirculation carrying oxygen, glucose, growth factors and immune cells exactly where needed.
Before and after surgery, the care team decides.
Neoangiogenesis as the biological response to exercise
Regular aerobic exercise promotes neoangiogenesis, the formation of new capillaries.
An efficient microcirculation supports wound healing.
What a watch does not measure
Microcirculation is not measured by a wrist-worn device: it takes clinical instruments such as NIRS or laser Doppler. The heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and oxygen saturation (SpO₂) that a watch records describe other things and do not replace that measurement.
Prehabilitation and microcirculation
This is the idea behind prehabilitation: if exercise promotes new capillaries, training in the weeks before surgery may support the microcirculation that healing depends on. It is a line of reasoning, not a result measured in this chapter. The programme and its intensity are decided and followed by the care team.
A study is a starting point, not a conclusion.
The Digital Twin and this research
The Digital Twin lines up the data your devices write to your phone, such as steps, heart rate and sleep, and shows you how they change over time. It does not measure microcirculation and it does not diagnose: this research describes groups of people, not you. These are data to read together with your doctor.
The source is at the bottom. Open it.
The source
This summary starts from research by others. It is not medical advice for you: talk it over with your doctor.
Their study. Your data.
Related reading
Exercise and lung surgery: a meta-analysis of seven studies
Meta-analysis of seven studies, 404 people having lung cancer surgery: those who exercised first had fewer complications. The 5,000 steps come from one.
Exercise before major surgery: a 2014 review
2014 review: high-quality evidence for exercise before cardiovascular surgery; for other surgery, only circumstantial.
More studies, same rule: read the source.