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Implantation of Total Artificial Heart in Congenital Heart Disease
Published on: July 18, 2014
[Cardiac rehabilitation in adults with congenital heart diseases]
S Corone1, G Bosser2, A Legendre3
1Service de réadaptation cardiaque, centre hospitalier de Bligny, 91640 Briis-sous-Forges, France.
Insights
Adults with congenital heart disease often experience functional limitations due to physical deconditioning, not just heart issues. Cardiac rehabilitation is crucial for improving their health and quality of life.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Adult Congenital Heart Disease
- Rehabilitation Medicine
Background:
- Advances in medical and surgical management allow children with congenital heart disease (CHD) to reach adulthood.
- Despite good hemodynamic results, many adults with CHD experience functional capacity limitations.
- These limitations negatively impact daily life and overall quality of life.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the multifactorial origins of functional limitations in adults with CHD.
- To emphasize the significant role of physical deconditioning, often due to inactivity, in these limitations.
- To advocate for the integration of physical activity and cardiac rehabilitation in managing adult CHD.
Main Methods:
- Review of factors contributing to functional limitations in adults with CHD.
- Discussion on the impact of medical advice and parental overprotection on physical activity.
- Exploration of cardiac rehabilitation as a key intervention.
Main Results:
- Functional limitation in adults with CHD is often multifactorial, including disease severity, surgical outcomes, and physical deconditioning.
- Physical deconditioning is frequently linked to a lack of physical activity, sometimes imposed by healthcare providers or parents.
- Cardiac rehabilitation offers a structured approach to address deconditioning and improve outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Addressing physical deconditioning is essential for improving the health and quality of life of adults with CHD.
- Close collaboration between cardiac rehabilitators and congenital cardiologists is vital for effective patient management.
- Guidance on re-training and physical activity is necessary for this growing patient population.
Abstract:
The great advances in the medical and surgical management of congenital heart diseases have allowed many children to reach adulthood with often a good hemodynamic result. Nevertheless most of these adults have a limitation of their functional capacity. This limitation is more or less important, penalizes them in their daily life and alters their quality of life. The origin of this limitation is generally multifactorial. It is linked, of course, to the severity of the heart disease and the quality of the operative result. But there is very often a physical deconditioning. It can be secondary to the heart disease but is often secondary to a lack of physical activity. It is the parents, sometimes overprotective, but frequently the doctors who imposed, often wrongly, this restriction. It is essential to take this dimension into account in view of the important benefits expected for health and quality of life. Cardiac rehabilitation is a privileged tool for providing advice in a suitable environment. This requires close collaboration between cardiac rehabilitators and congenital cardiologists to offer appropriate care. We bring here some reflections and the basic elements to guide the re-training of these patients.
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