The effect of early cardiac rehabilitation on the rheumatic heart disease patients with valve replacement

Introduction/Background Our study was to investigate the effects of early cardiac rehabilitation (CR) program on the rheumatic heart disease (RHD) patients after valve replacement. Material and method Sixty patients with RHD (mean age 53.26 ± 1.89, 30 males, 30 females) were included. We randomly divided into two groups, group A (early cardiac rehabilitation group) and group B (control group) before valve replacement. All the participants were educated with diaphragmatic breathing, cough exercise, incentive spirometry training, physical exercises, notice and etc. at the day before surgery. In addition, group A did respiratory training, cough and physical exercise guided with therapist every day after surgery until discharge. However, the patients in group B did these exercises that they had been educated before surgery by themselves as possible as they could after surgery. Distance of 6MWT, the score of Borg were measured before surgery and the day of discharge, except that, hospital stays (d) and ICU stays (h) were measured in both groups, to evaluate the effects of early cardiac rehabilitation on these patients. Results The distance of 6MWT were increased at the day on discharge in both groups, and the distance of group A (486.00 ± 55.86 m) was significantly longer than group B (273.00 ± 46.78 m) ( P P P P  > 0.05). However, the time of hospital stays in group A (24.78 ± 0.63d) was significantly shorter than group B (36.43 ± 1.99d) ( P Conclusion This study showed the good effect of these interventions in exercise-based CR with RHD patients.