Use of the pre-operative shuttle walk test to predict morbidity and mortality after elective major colorectal surgery
Anaesthesia, 05/16/2012

Nutt CL et al. – The authors conclude that the shuttle walk test can help identify patients who are at increased peri–operative risk.

• The authors investigated whether a simple exercise test could predict postoperative outcome using a prospective trial of 121 patients undergoing elective major abdominal surgery.
• Each patient completed a shuttle walk test and was followed up for 30days after surgery.

• There was one postoperative death (0.8%), with 53 patients (44%) developing complications.
• The mean (SD) shuttle walk test distance was significantly different between patients who suffered complications and those who did not (276.6 (134.5) vs 389.6 (138.9) m, respectively; p<0.001).
• A cut-off distance of 250m had a specificity of 0.88 and a sensitivity of 0.58 to predict postoperative complications.
• Patients unable to complete a shuttle walk test above this cut-off distance were three times more likely to have a postoperative morbidity.