Rationale: Poor preoperative physical fitness and respiratory muscle weakness are associated with postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) that result in prolonged hospital length of stay and increased mortality.

Objectives: To examine the effect of preoperative exercise training on the risk of PPCs across different surgical settings.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, the Physiotherapy Evidence Database, and the Cochrane Central Register, without language restrictions, for studies from inception to July 2020. We included randomized controlled trials that compared patients receiving exercise training with those receiving usual care or sham training before cardiac, lung, esophageal, or abdominal surgery. PPCs were the main outcome; secondary outcomes were preoperative functional changes and postoperative mortality, cardiovascular complications, and hospital length of stay. The study was registered with PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews).

Results: From 29 studies, 2,070 patients were pooled for meta-analysis. Compared with the control condition, preoperative exercise training was associated with a lower incidence of PPCs (23 studies, 1,864 patients; relative risk, 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.41 to 0.66; grading of evidence, moderate); Trial Sequential Analysis confirmed effectiveness, and there was no evidence of difference of effect across surgeries, type of training (respiratory muscles, endurance or combined), or preoperative duration of training. At the end of the preoperative period, exercise training resulted in increased peak oxygen uptake (weighted mean difference [WMD], +2 ml/kg/min; 99% CI, 0.3 to 3.7) and higher maximal inspiratory pressure (WMD, +12.2 cm H₂O; 99% CI, 6.3 to 18.2). Hospital length of stay was shortened (WMD, -2.3 d; 99% CI, -3.82 to -0.75) in the intervention group, whereas no difference was found in postoperative mortality.

Conclusions: Preoperative exercise training improves physical fitness and reduces the risk of developing PPCs while minimizing hospital resources use, regardless of the type of intervention and surgery performed. Systematic review registered with https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ (CRD 42018096956).