Exercising your brain by playing video games before major surgery can prevent delirium and help speed up the recovery process, scientists claim. Researchers from Ohio State College of Medicine gave a tablet with a brain game application to 268 patients over the age of 60 scheduled to have major surgery. Patients were asked to play brain games - a practice called'neurobics' - for an hour per day before major surgery as part of the study - and experts found it reduced the risk of postoperative delirium in those who played regularly by over 60 per cent. Doctors already recommend prehabilitation techniques for patients due to undergo surgery - but usually in the form of exercise and a healthy diet to help the body. None of the existing prehabilitation techniques address postoperative delirium, according to Ohio researchers - a condition that can slow down recovery.

A patient has become the first in Britain to be operated on for major cancer surgery by a robot. Dean Walter, 41, had a full pelvic extraction in which his bladder, prostate, rectum and lower colon were removed through a cut in his abdomen only 2in wide. The operation usually requires a surgeon and three assistants to cut the patient open from their chest to their groin. Mr Walter, a former fitness model, would have needed three weeks in hospital to recover from traditional surgery – but he was ready to go home eight days after the robotic procedure for rectal cancer. It was done using a £2million Da Vinci Xi robot, which has four arms for cutting tissue, sealing blood vessels and filming inside the body with a 3D camera.