Relación entre el ejercicio físico previo a la intervención y la calidad de vida en cirugía cardiaca

Introduction and objectives

The relationship between pre-intervention physical exercise and quality of life, risk of complications or death has not been studied.

Methods

Prospective cohort study. Improvement in quality of life between preoperatively and at 6 months was analyzed using the EUROQOL scale and VAS. The level of physical exercise was analyzed by METS. The improvement in quality of life was evaluated according to the previous level of exercise and we studied whether the higher the level of exercise, the greater the increase in quality of life.

Results

Quality of life improved according both scales; VAS 17.8 ± 18.8 points (p < 0.001) and EUROQOL 1.1 ± 1.1 points (p < 0.001). Patients improved their quality of life. The higher level of previous exercise did not lead to a greater improvement in quality of life, but it did reduce the event of cardiogenic shock (p = 0.032), complicated postoperative (p = 0.034) and the combined event combined postoperative or death (p = 0.027).

Conclusions

Cardiac surgery improves quality of life at six months for all patients. A higher level of exercise is not related with a greater improvement in quality of life. A higher level of physical exercise is associated with less risk of postoperative complications or death.