Effectiveness of early cardiac rehabilitation after coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of phase II cardiac rehabilitation (CR) program, applied during the early post-discharge period (2nd week post-op), on functional capacity, quality of life, dyspnea, muscle strength, frailty and body composition in elderly patients who have undergone coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Method: The study included 44 clinically stable patients, aged 65-86 years, who had undergone CABG surgery. Patients were randomly divided into treatment (n=22) and control (n=22) groups. All patients were evaluated at baseline and after 8 weeks. After the initial evaluations, all patients were given education on secondary prevention approaches and a home exercise program. In addition, patients in the treatment group underwent a supervised CR program for 60 minutes, 3 sessions per week for 8 weeks. Patients were assessed by measurement of functional capacity levels with '6 Minute Walk Test (6MWT)', quality of life with 'Macnew Heart Disease Health-Related Quality of Life Scale (MHQOL)', dyspnea level with 'Modified Medical Research Council (MMRC) Dyspnea Scale', hand grip strength with 'Digital Hand Dynamometer', frailty level with 'Frail Frailty Scale' and 'Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB)' and body composition with 'Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis Device'. Findings: Significant improvements in dyspnea level, hand grip strength, frailty scale score were found to be similar for both groups (p>0.05). Statistically significant improvements were achieved in the treatment group compared to the control group in 6MWD, quality of life and short physical performance battery total score (p<0.05). While there was a significant decrease in body fat percentage in the treatment group (p<0.05), there was a significant increase in the control group (p<0.05) and the change in body fat percentage was in favor of the treatment group (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was concluded that the Phase II CR program applied under hospital supervision together with the home program in the early period after CABG surgery could provide greater improvements in functional capacity, quality of life, physical performance parameters and body fat percentage than the program applied only at home.