Cardiac rehabilitation after TAVI is safe and improves exercise tolerance and quality of life, with preliminary data suggesting a potential to reduce mortality.
Does cardiac rehabilitation improve outcomes (exercise tolerance, quality of life, mortality) in elderly, frail patients after TAVI?
Cardiac rehabilitation after TAVI appears safe and beneficial for exercise tolerance and quality of life, highlighting a need for formal guideline recommendations and randomized trials.
Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an increasingly widespread percutaneous intervention of aortic valve replacement (AVR). The target population for TAVI is mainly composed of elderly, frail patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS), multiple comorbidities, and high perioperative mortality risk for surgical AVR (sAVR). These vulnerable patients could benefit from cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs after percutaneous intervention. To date, no major guidelines currently recommend CR after TAVI. However, emerging scientific evidence shows that CR in patients undergoing TAVI is safe, and improves exercise tolerance and quality of life. Moreover, preliminary data prove that a CR program after TAVI has the potential to reduce mortality during follow-up, even if randomized clinical trials are needed for confirmation. The present review article provides an overview of all scientific evidence concerning the potential beneficial effects of CR after TAVI, and suggests possible fields of research to improve cardiac care after TAVI.
Sperlongano et al. (Wed,) conducted a review in Severe aortic stenosis. Cardiac rehabilitation was evaluated. Cardiac rehabilitation after TAVI is safe and improves exercise tolerance and quality of life, with preliminary data suggesting a potential to reduce mortality.