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Updated: May 28, 2026

Implantation of Total Artificial Heart in Congenital Heart Disease
Published on: July 17, 2014
Exercise and training in adults with congenital heart disease
Erik Thaulow1, Per Morten Fredriksen
1Physiotherapy Department, University Hospital Oslo, Rikshospitalet, 0027 Oslo, Norway. erik.thaulow@rikhopsital.no
Abstract:
Patients with congenital heart disease run the risk of overweight and low physical activity. Lifestyle measures are as important in these patients as in the general population. Exercise testing is an effective tool to identify patients in whom exercise may induce arrhythmias or hemodynamic instability but more often to reveal the safety of exercise, which is the conclusion in the majority of these patients. Systematic training programs have only been introduced to small groups of patients with congenital heart disease, and there are only few data on the effects obtained. The studies concluded that the exercise training programs used were safe.
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