The effectiveness of hydrotherapy on quality of life and exercise capacity in patients with cardiac diseases: a scoping review

Although hydrotherapy is an alternative treatment for people with heart conditions, it is still unknown how hydrotherapy would affect these patients' quality of life and ability to exercise. The aim of this review is to investigate the impact of hydrotherapy on heart disease patients. A search of the databases PubMed, the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), EBSCO, Scopus, and Google Scholar was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining how hydrotherapy affects people with heart conditions. The PEDro scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the research for bias risk. This scoping review comprised eleven studies with a total of 245 cardiac patients. Hydrotherapy reduced heart rate, mean arterial pressure, systemic vascular resistance, and cardiac index in patients with chronic heart failure and increased exercise tolerance, peak power output, and total body strength in male patients with coronary artery disease. It also improved work rate, cardiac output, stroke volume, exercise and walking capacity, and peak oxygen uptake. The risk of bias assessment revealed that one study was excellent quality, eight studies were good quality, and two were poor quality. Hydrotherapy is an effective physical therapy modality for the rehabilitation of patients with cardiac diseases. However, further, larger studies with less heterogeneity are required due to the low-quality studies and low-quality evidence to confirm the findings and elucidate the underlying mechanisms of hydrotherapy in cardiac patients.