Remote telerehabilitation for frailty management in liver transplant candidates: A feasible yet underutilized strategy
This letter reviews Loschi <i>et al</i>'s study evaluating structured telerehabilitation for frail cirrhotic liver transplant candidates, which fills a critical pre-transplant care gap. The video-based program, using low-cost tools and asynchronous sessions, improved liver frailty index reduction and function in adherent patients (29.8%) although a high attrition rate (70%) highlighted engagement challenges. Limitations include a small, non-randomized sample, mixed frailty subgroups, and unexplored long-term effects. Future directions emphasize hybrid models, patient-centered barrier analysis, and policy-driven frailty screening. This work advances digital health for cirrhosis; however, larger trials are needed to optimize outcomes.
Authors
- Liu Chen
- Bing-Qian Yin
- Xu Cui
Institutions
- Fujian Medical University (CN)
- Fujian Women and Children Hospital (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- World Journal of Hepatology
- Published
- 2026-01-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.4254/wjh.v18.i1.114880
- Primary Topic
- Frailty in Older Adults
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00