Nutritional prehabilitation in patients undergoing radical cystectomy: A systematic review for practicing urologists.

Introduction: Immunonutrition plays a major role in the prehabilitation of patients undergoing radical cystectomy for bladder cancer. The aim of this study was to familiarize practitioners familiarize current clinical research on the nutritional preconditioning of patients prior to surgery.

Material and methods: A systematic literature review was conducted in PubMed database. Out of 25 records identified, 7 studies were included. Only 1 of these was a randomized controlled trial.

Results: Immunonutrition has been associated with a reduction in postoperative complications and hospital length of stay, as well as improvements in postoperative bowel function. It may also contribute to modulating the inflammatory response.

Conclusions: Nutritional prehabilitation may positively influence postoperative outcomes following radical cystectomy. However, further randomized controlled trials are necessary to provide more robust and reliable evidence in this field.