Value of early ambulation in patients with and without complications after acute myocardial infarction

A prospective, controlled, randomized study was done to compare the effect of early and late ambulation in hospitalized patients with acute myocardial infarction. All patients surviving longer than the first five days were studied; 64 patients were mobilized on day six and discharged on day 12, and 65 were mobilized on day 13 and discharged on day 19. Follow-up observation lasted from six to 52 weeks. Of patients without complications until day six, eight out of 32 in the early and 16 of 35 in the late groups manifested complications during the follow-up period (p smaller than 0.05). Of those who had complications before day six, seven of 32 and 26 of 30 still had or acquired new complications until last seen (p small than 0.0001). The number of serious complications in the two groups was eight and 24 respectively (p smaller than 0.001). We conclude that early ambulation is beneficial irrespective of complications on admission.