Pre-rehabilitation in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery: A literature review

This review study was conducted with the aim of highlighting the importance of a preoperative preventive approach in the recovery of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery.

With the increase in the number of patients who are candidated for heart surgery, improving the health status before the operation is of great importance to optimize the results after the operation. This review has been conducted with the aim of evaluating the evidence related to the pre-rehabilitation of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery.

The present literature review was conducted by searching out library resources and databases, Scopus, Chochrane Library, Magiran, SID, PubMed, Up-to-date, OVID, CINAHL, and Web of Science with the keywords, coronary artery bypass surgery, pre-rehabilitation, cardiovascular disease and their Persian equivalents without time limit. From a total of 104 articles, 63 full texts articles entered the review stage, of which 17 articles entered the literature review.

The findings indicate the favorable effects of pre-rehabilitation on improving the quality of life and preventing complications in the early postoperative period. Pre-rehabilitation programs should adopt multifaceted approaches including nutrition, exercise, and anxiety reduction to improve patient resilience in the preoperative period. The pre-operative period is a critical opportunity to implement pre-rehabilitation interventions for vulnerable patients awaiting cardiac surgery.

Cardiac pre-rehabilitation includes a wide range of preventive interventions that can be taught by nurses to patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Pre-rehabilitation requires an interdisciplinary approach, because it suggests a change from the current model of health care and transformation from one-dimensional care to interdisciplinary care, which can be an effective tool for the medical and nursing system in timely identification of physical and mental disorders in initial preoperative assessment, preoperative education and management, as well as prevention of postoperative complications.