Table 4 Identified self-care actions

Preoperative:

• life-style changes preparations

• preparations

• Hou et al. 2019 [34], van der Meij et al. 2018 [35], Mundi et al. 2015 [36], Timmers et al. 2019 [40]

• Bouwsma et al. 2017, Felbaum et al. 2018 [31], Glauser et al. 2017, van der Meij et al. 2018 [35], Mundi et al. 2015 [36], Pickens et al. 2019 [38], Russ et al. 2020 [39]

Postoperative:

• activity/exercises

• management of surgical wounds/tracheostomy/removing of sutures

• nutritious food

• pain management

• self-assessments of postoperative recovery (activities, exercises, and symptoms)

• Cnossen et al. 2016 [29], Davidovitch et al. 2018 [30]

• Cnossen et al. 2016 [29], Davidovitch et al. 2018 [30], Russ et al. 2020 [39], Tofte et al. 2020 [41]

• Cnossen et al. 2016 [29], Mundi et al. 2015 [36], Russ et al. 2020 [39]

• Glauser et al. 2017

• Bouwsma et al. 2017, Glauser et al. 2019 [32], Gustavell et al. 2019 [33], Pecorelli et al. 2018 [37], Pickens et al. 2019 [38], Timmers et al. 2019 [40], Tofte et al. 2020 [41]