Emergency abdominal surgical pathology remains a significant proportion of all surgical diseases, while mortality and postoperative complications remain considerable. Surgical interventions for emergency abdominal pathology belong to the high-risk category, if there is old age, poor general health, low physical strength and obesity. At the same time, patients with the limited cardiorespiratory reserve have a higher risk of postoperative complications and mortality. Despite significant medical advances in surgical treatment of emergency abdominal pathology and surgical techniques, role of physical therapy in the treatment of acute intra-abdominal pathology remains insufficiently studied and described in the specialized literature and its significance in clinical practice underestimated. Among other reasons, there are insufficient clinical guidelines and lack of understanding of its effect on treatment outcomes, such as mortality, frequency and type of postoperative morbidity, duration of in hospital stay, quality of life and rate of physical recovery. The role of physical therapy in treatment of emergency abdominal surgical pathology remains unclear and available scientific knowledge and practical experience are not reflected in the treatment protocols. Only recently, isolated reports of complex treatment algorithms of major urgent abdominal pathology have been published, which encompass surgical, anesthesia, laboratory, imaging, physiotherapy and nutritional support expertise. Some studies indicate a role for early physical therapy as an integral part of treatment after surgical intervention for acute intra-abdominal pathology along with postoperative intensive care and pharmacological treatment. However, current evidence from randomized trials remains weak due to absence of clearly defined, standardized physiotherapy interventions, which limits the comparison in assessment of the treatment outcomes. Conclusion. So far, in Ukraine there is no standard of physical therapy in clinical protocol of emergency abdominal surgical pathology. Therefore, there remains a need for theoretic and practical substantiation of the physical therapy as an important part of complex treatment of emergency abdominal surgical pathology.
Keywords: physical therapy, emergency abdominal surgery
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