Very short/short‐term benefit of inpatient/outpatient cardiac rehabilitation programs after coronary artery bypass grafting surgery

Background Exercise‐based rehabilitation is an important part of treatment patients following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Hypothesis To evaluate effect of very short/short‐term exercise training on cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) parameters. Methods We studied 54 consecutive patients with myocardial infarction (MI) treated with CABG surgery referred for rehabilitation. The study population consisted of 50 men and 4 women (age 57.72 ± 7.61 years, left ventricular ejection fraction 55% ± 5.81%), who participated in a 3‐week clinical and 6‐month outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program. The Inpatient program consisted of cycling 7 times/week and daily walking for 45 minutes. The outpatient program consisted mainly of walking 5 times/week for 45 minutes and cycling 3 times/week. All patients performed symptom‐limited CPET on a bicycle ergometer with a ramp protocol of 10 W/minute at the start, for 3 weeks, and for 6 months. Results After 3 weeks of an exercise‐based cardiac rehabilitation program, exercise tolerance improved as compared to baseline, as well as peak respiratory exchange ratio. Most importantly, peak VO2 (16.35 ± 3.83 vs 17.88 ± 4.25 mL/kg/min, respectively, P < 0.05), peak VCO2 (1.48 ± 0.40 vs 1.68 ± 0.43, respectively, P < 0.05), peak ventilatory exchange (44.52 ± 11.32 vs 52.56 ± 12.37 L/min, respectively, P < 0.05), and peak breathing reserve (52.00% ± 13.73% vs 45.75% ± 14.84%, respectively, P < 0.05) were also improved. The same improvement trend continued after 6 months (respectively, P < 0.001 and P < 0.0001). No major adverse cardiac events were noted during the rehabilitation program. Conclusions Very short/short‐term exercise training in patients with MI treated with CABG surgery is safe and improves functional capacity.