Comparison of Head, Neck, and Upper Trunk Postures between Patients Who Have Undergone Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting and Healthy Subjects: A pilot study

Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting is an effective treatment for reducing symptoms and mortality in coronary artery patients.Although patients experience post sternotomy complications such as musculoskeletal disorders. So, the aim of this study was to compare the head, neck and upper trunk postures between patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting and healthy individuals.

In this cross-sectional case-control study, twenty-one men (56.38 ± 8.64 years) were randomly selected from among patients who had been referred to Al-Zahra Cardiac Rehabilitation Center in Shiraz and undergone coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and the angles of forward head, thoracic kyphosis, and rounded shoulder were measured. Twenty healthy men (51.70 ± 10.40 years) were also evaluated and compared in terms of the above variables. This study was designed and conducted as a pilot. The angles of the forward head and rounded shoulder were assessed by placing reflective markers on the body and processing the images by Digimizer MedCalc software, version 4.6.1. Thoracic kyphosis angle was measured by a flexible ruler. The Persian version of the SF36 questionnaire was used to assess the quality of life, and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to verify the normal distribution of data. Independent sample t-test and Mann-Whitney test were used for between-group comparison for data with normal and non-normal distribution, respectively.

The comparison of the forward head, rounded shoulder, and thoracic kyphosis angles showed no significant difference between post-surgical and healthy subjects (P> 0.05). Patients' quality of life was significantly different from that of the control group in all aspects, except for general and mental-emotional health (p <0.05).

There was no significant difference between the case and control groups in the angles of forward head, thoracic kyphosis, and rounded shoulder. Patients who underwent CABG, however, experienced a significant reduction in their quality of life compared to the control group. Therefore, it seems necessary to pay attention to patients and find solutions to manage and improve various aspects of life, such as physical and mental health.