Original article: cardiovascularExercise therapy after coronary artery bypass graft surgery: a randomized comparison of a high and low frequency exercise therapy program
Section snippets
Study design
The study featured a prospective single blinded, randomized trial comparing the functional relevance of two standardized exercise programs (high and low frequency) executed during the early postoperative course in patients undergoing uncomplicated CABG surgery.
The study protocol was approved by the local medical ethics committee. All patients were informed about the study protocol and gave written informed consent.
Randomization procedure
During 12 periods of 30 days each the patients benefited from a standardized
Postoperative course
One hundred and seventy-six patients were discharged home and 68 were moved to another hospital for social or medical reasons (not influencing physical functioning). Significantly more patients in the low frequency group had a rethoracotomy (Table 3). Two patients had a prolonged ( > 2 weeks) hospital stay due to mediastinitis. Median length of stay was 7 days for both the high and low frequency group (range, from 5 to 11 and from 5 to 18, respectively) (p = 0.510). The mean number of exercise
Comment
The patients in the high frequency group achieved four out of five clinical milestones significantly faster than the patients in the low frequency group. There were, however, no differences in other measures of functional independence and physical activity as assessed on the sixth postoperative day. Patients' satisfaction was significantly higher in the high frequency group, although the low frequency group was not dissatisfied.
The difference between the two groups in achieving the milestones
Acknowledgements
We thank the physical therapists and medical and nursing staff of the cardiothoracic surgery team of the LUMC for their assistance with the recruitment and treatment of the patients and with data collection. The study was financially supported by “Vereniging Academische Ziekenhuizen” and the Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands. Health Insurance Board (College voor Zorgverzekeringen) (Grant number 99221).
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