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The Verulam Trial: post-operative outcomes in elective surgeryThe Verulam trial enrolled 2,480 adults undergoing elective abdominal surgery across eleven centres between 2019 and 2023. Participants were randomised to a structured pre-operative optimisation pathway or to usual care.Complications within thirty days occurred in 14.2 percent of the intervention arm and 20.3 percent of the usual care arm. That is a relative reduction of close to a third, and the difference was statistically significant.Secondary outcomes included length of stay, which fell by 1.4 days on average, and unplanned readmission, which did not differ between the groups. The authors concluded that structured optimisation before surgery meaningfully lowers the burden of post-operative complications.