The features of early rehabilitation in patients after surgical repair of valvular heart disease

Abstract

Aim. To develop and evaluate the safety/efficacy of an early rehabilitation program with physical aerobic training in patients after surgical repair of acquired valvular heart disease.Methods. The study included 45 patients with valvular heart disease undergoing surgical repair. Patients in the group (n = 30) underwent a standard cardiac rehabilitation after the surgery; on the 8th day after the surgery patients in the main group (n = 15) in addition to the standard cardiac rehabilitation were involved in personalized aerobic physical training on a treadmill prescribed according to the cardiopulmonary exercise testing results (spiroveloergometry). The duration of the training on a treadmill was 14 days.Results. The rhythm changing, life-threatening heart rhythm disorders, episodes of ischemia, desaturation were not recorded during the training. The main reason to stop the training was the weakness and fatigue of the patients. There were no disturbances of intracardiac hemodynamic after the course of physical training. In the main group there was a significant increase in exercise tolerance from 50.0 [25.0; 75.0] to 75.0 [50.0; 100.0] W (p = 0.04), close to significant increase in VO2peak from 10.9 [9.6; 13.3] to 12.3 [10.6; 14.9] ml/kg/min (p = 0.07).Conclusion. The 14-days program of early rehabilitation with aerobic training after surgical repair of valvular heart disease has demonstrated its safety and influenced the increase in exercise tolerance, peak oxygen consumption.