Exercise Therapy For Claudication Research Articles

Exercise therapy for claudication: Should home-based exercise therapy be prescribed in clinical practice?

Peripheral artery disease is a cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. The literature suggests evidence that an exercise program can be beneficial in the treatment of patients with claudication. Supervised exercise therapy is well documented in the literature, and national guidelines recommend it as an initial conservative management. When a supervised exercise program is unavailable or not covered by insurance, an alternative to supervised exercise is vital. The purpose of this review is to examine the evidence regarding the efficacy of a home-based exercise program. Four studies were included in this review, and although the evidence supporting a home-based exercise program is limited in the literature, the findings indicate that a home-based exercise program increases claudication onset time, resulting in greater mobility and improvement in the patient's quality of life.

Exercise Therapy for Claudication: Latest Advances

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) creates a significant national and international healthcare burden. A first line treatment for PAD is supervised walking exercise in hospitals and clinics. Specifically, supervised walking exercise seeks to improve the classic symptom associated with PAD, intermittent claudication (IC), which is characterized by cramping, aching, and pain of the muscles in the lower extremities during walking. While effective, supervised walking exercise is often not prescribed or utilized due to a number of treatment barriers such as lack of transportation to clinical centers and lack of insurance reimbursement. Walking exercise in community settings is an option that has gained attention due to the limitations of supervised walking exercise, as community walking is generally more convenient in terms of a patient's schedule and may circumvent potential barriers such as treatment cost and transportation difficulties. However, more research is needed to improve the effectiveness of community-based walking programs since far less is known about the optimal structure of such programs. Other exercise therapy options are becoming available for PAD patients in addition to walking exercise. These modalities include but are not limited to leg and arm ergometry, polestriding and resistance training. These exercise therapy options have not to date been as well validated as supervised walking exercise. However, they may potentially be used in the event supervised walking exercise is not feasible or patient preference warrants an alternative exercise strategy.

Exercise Therapy for Claudication

Exercise Therapy for Claudication