Effects of different telehabilitation methods on postoperative pulmonary rehabilitation of patients with lung cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials protocol.

Abstract

Postoperative pulmonary complications affect approximately 40% of individuals undergoing lung cancer surgery. A number of clinical trials and meta-analyses have shown that postoperative telehabilitation may reduce the incidence of postoperative adverse events while reducing transport time and outpatient costs and improving patient motivation. However, optimal telehabilitation strategies remain undetermined. The primary objective of this protocol is thus to compare the effects of different telehabilitation methods used after pulmonary surgery in patients with lung cancer by conducting a network meta-analysis. Two researchers will independently search six databases (PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, Medline and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)) and two clinical trial registries (ClinicalTrials.gov and WHO ICTRP). The time range will be from database inception to March 2026. EndNote X V.21 will be used for screening based on predetermined inclusion criteria. All Chinese and English randomised controlled trials examining the effects of telehabilitation on lung function after lung cancer surgery will be included. The primary outcome measures will be forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume over 1 s (FEV₁), FEV₁/FVC and 6 min walking test. The secondary outcome measures will be the incidence of adverse events, intervention completion rate, incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) score. Risk of bias assessment will be performed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias V.2 (RoB V.2.0) tool, while certainty of evidence will be evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment and Evaluation (GRADE). Stata V.18.0 (StataCorp, College Station, Texas) and R (V.4.1.2) will be used to conduct traditional pairwise meta-analysis and network meta-analysis. Ethical approval is not required for this study. The results will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal or conference. CRD420251275899.