Impact of a Physical Reconditioning Program on the Quality of Life of Patients Following Coronary Artery Bypass, with or without Led Therapy: Preliminary Results

Aims: Analyse the impact of a physical recondition program (PRP) on Quality of Life (QOL), associated or not to LED therapy on sternotomy after coronary-artery bypass graft (CABG).
Study Design: Follow-up after a clinical trial.
Place and Duration of Study: Participants were recruited and followed-up from September 2011 to March 2012 in Teresina, Piauí, Brazil.
Methodology: 90 volunteers were electively submitted to CABG. During hospitalization, volunteers were randomly allocated into three different groups of equal size: Light emitting diode (LED: λ of 640±20 nm, SAEF of 1.2 J/cm2), placebo and control. All patients were subjected to a physical therapy program during their hospitalization and then stimulated to join a physical therapist-supervised PRP after discharge. The patients were followed for six months after the surgery. The Short-Form (36) was used to assess QOL.
Results: After six months, patients’ QOL had increased significantly in all aspects when compared to pre-operatory scores, regardless the use of LED (Mann-Whitney test p≤0.05).
Discussion: While the use of LEDs has shown to have analgesic and healing effects during hospitalization, the fotobiomodulator not proved to be important in the QOL perception, six months after discharge. In addition, Short-Form (36) showed to be a useful tool to assess the quality of life after CABG, collaborating with risk estimation and prognosis.
Conclusion: The QOL of the patients who adhered to a physical reconditioning program supervised by a physical therapist increased in the first six months after surgery, while those patients who also were submitted to LED therapy during hospitalization had even better results.