Effect of Cardiac Rehabilitation on Strength and Balance in Patients after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

Background: The most common method for improving the quality of life especially in chronic heart disease is rehabilitation. For increasing the level of knowledge about effect of rehabilitation and its ' impression on improving the quality of life in patients. This study evaluates effect of one month cardiac rehabilitation on lower limb strength and the static and dynamic balance of CABG patients.

Materials and Methods: This study is based on clinical trial before and after rehabilitation. the exercise protocol lasted for one month, three times per week, each session lasting 1 hour, on 30 male patients in two groups in control (N=15) and experimental group (N=15) after CABG in the centre of rehabilitation in Javad-Alaeme Heart Hospital, Mashhad. The strength of lower limb by chair standing test, the static balance by standing on one leg and dynamic balance by time up and go (TUG) test, was evaluated before and after 1 month rehabilitation in training group and detraining in control group. Data were analyzed with SPSS-16 and used t-test analysis (p≤0.05).

Results: The strength of lower limb (p=0.001), static balance (p=0.023) and dynamic balance (p=0.037) increased significantly after one month of cardiac rehabilitation.

Conclusions: The result of this study indicates that cardiac rehabilitation after coronary artery bypass surgery causes significant increase in strength of lower limb and balance in patients, the more muscle strength is associated with an increase in ability of performing daily activities and so it causes improved quality of life.