[The effect of combined rehabilitation on the physical work capacity of patients who have had a myocardial infarct]

Abstract

125 patients with past myocardial infarction (basic group) have been treated for 5 years by a comprehensive rehabilitation program and their physical fitness was checked against 35 patients also with past myocardial infarction who did not take part in the rehabilitation program (control group). The rehabilitation program included physical exercises, measured walking and psychological rehabilitation. The results show that the physical fitness of the basic group was significantly higher than that of the control group and the patients could sustain physical load over 600 kgf/min. 88.7% of the basic group patients returned to their professional occupation against 71.2% for the control group. Highest mortality was recorded during the first year following the discharge from the hospital. At the end of the 5-year observation period 77.2% of the basic group patients were alive versus 72.8% of the control group and 70.4% of the basic group patients are working vs 50.8% of the control group. The patients who had taken part in the comprehensive physical rehabilitation are with improved physical fitness (statistically proved). The relation between the restored physical fitness and the real resuming of professional activity is proved.