A challenging problem after heart surgery is a decline in cognitive abilities which affects about 20 per cent of patients who have heart surgery.

Now, researchers are saying a six-minute “walk test” before surgery can help predict outcomes and complications after surgery.

The walk test involves having the patient walk as far as they can within six minutes.

The test has been determined as useful in identifying patients at higher risk for both cardiac and cognitive function after cardiac surgery, so that doctors and patients can be better prepared to treat it.

The study, published in the journal Annals of Thoracic Surgery, also shows that patients undergoing any type of major surgery do better when they are physically fit.

(ABC)