Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for adult patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator

BACKGROUND: An effective way of preventing sudden cardiac death is the use of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). In spite of the potential mortality benefits of receiving an ICD device, psychological problems experienced by patients after receiving an ICD may negatively impact their health-related quality of life, and lead to increased readmission to hospital and healthcare needs, loss of productivity and employment earnings, and increased morbidity and mortality. Evidence from other heart conditions suggests that cardiac rehabilitation should consist of both exercise training and psychoeducational interventions; such rehabilitation may benefit patients with an ICD. Prior systematic reviews of cardiac rehabilitation have excluded participants with an ICD. A systematic review was therefore conducted to assess the evidence for the use of exercise-based intervention programmes following implantation of an ICD. OBJECTIVES: To assess the benefits and harms of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation programmes (exercise-based interventions alone or in combination with psychoeducational components) compared with control (group of no intervention, treatment as usual or another rehabilitation programme with no physical exercise element) in adults with an ICD. SEARCH METHODS: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase and four other databases on 30 August 2018 and three trials registers on 14 November 2017. We also undertook reference checking, citation searching and contacted study authors for missing data. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) if they investigated exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation interventions compared with no intervention, treatment as usual or another rehabilitation programme. The trial participants were adults (aged 18 years or older), who had been treated with an ICD regardless of type or indication. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently extracted data and assessed risk of bias. The primary outcomes were all-cause mortality, serious adverse events and health-related quality of life. The secondary outcomes were exercise capacity, antitachycardia pacing, shock, non-serious adverse events, employment or loss of employment and costs and cost-effectiveness. Risk of systematic errors (bias) was assessed by evaluation of predefined bias risk domains. Clinical and statistical heterogeneity were assessed. Meta-analyses were undertaken using both fixed-effect and random-effects models. We used the GRADE approach to assess the quality of evidence. MAIN RESULTS: = 78%). There was no evidence of a difference in the risk of requiring antitachycardia pacing (RR 1.26, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.90; participants = 356; trials = 2; quality of evidence: moderate), appropriate shock (RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.20 to 1.58; participants = 428; studies = 3; quality of evidence: low) or inappropriate shock (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.10 to 3.51; participants = 160; studies = 1; quality of evidence: moderate). AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Due to a lack of evidence, we were unable to definitively assess the impact of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation on all-cause mortality, serious adverse events and health-related quality of life in adults with an ICD. However, our findings do provide very low-quality evidence that patients following exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation experience a higher exercise capacity compared with the no exercise control. Further high-quality randomised trials are needed in order to assess the impact of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in this population on all-cause mortality, serious adverse events, health-related quality of life, antitachycardia pacing and shock.