The safety of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program in patients after Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present review is to identify the safety of an exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program in patients after myocardial infarction. Materials and Methods: The PubMed/Medline and Scopus/Elsevier electronic databases were searched. A search strategy was developed based on the intersection of 2 search themes: cardiac rehabilitation program and exercise safety. Results: The articles that finally met all the inclusion criteria and were analyzed, after the screening of the title, the summary and the whole text, were 4. A total of 180.946 patients who received cardiac rehabilitation were examined in this review and 124 complications were occurred: 71 cardiac arrests (11 fatal), 15 myocardial infarctions (2 fatal), and 31 non-life-threatening patients: angina, ventricular tachycardia, 1 orthopedic injury and 4 deaths from cardiorespiratory disorder. Discussion: The present review has demonstrated that individualized and prescribed exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation is safe and recommended. The complications of these programs appear to be of low risk and with no statistical importance. The exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation when combined with patient participation, proper equipment and educated physicians present a very safe clinical approach to cardiovascular patients.