Safety of exercise training for cardiac patients: results of the French registry of complications during cardiac rehabilitation.
BACKGROUND
Cardiac rehabilitation is widely recognized as a medical management procedure that reduces mortality, but the cardiovascular safety of exercise training has not been clearly established. Published data are retrospective or outdated, as patient management has substantially progressed in recent years. The aim of this prospective registry was to determine the current complication rate during exercise performed in the course of cardiac rehabilitation.


METHODS
This study was conducted by the Functional Evaluation and Cardiac Rehabilitation Working Group of the French Society of Cardiology. During a 1-year period, 65 cardiac rehabilitation centers reported that serious events had occurred during or 1 hour after an exercise stress test or a training session. Severe cardiovascular events were validated by a scientific committee.


RESULTS
A total of 25,420 patients (78% men; mean age, 61.3 years) were included in the study. Initial indications for cardiac rehabilitation were post-cardiac surgery (coronary bypass, 34.3%; valvular surgery, 18.4%); recent percutaneous coronary intervention (21.6%); and other coronary (13.2%) and noncoronary (12.5%) conditions. The study population underwent 42,419 exercise stress tests and 743,471 patient-hours of exercise training. Twenty severe cardiac events were reported: 5 were related to exercise testing and 15 were related to exercise training. The event rate was 1 per 8484 exercise stress tests and 1 per 49,565 patient-hours of exercise training; the cardiac arrest rate was 1.3 per million patient-hours of exercise. Neither fatal complications nor emergency defibrillations were reported.


CONCLUSIONS
The frequency of major cardiovascular complications during supervised exercise training in France is quite low.
Pavy
Bruno
B
Service de Réadaptation Cardiaque, Centre Hospitalier, Machecoul, France. pavy.bruno@wanadoo.fr
Iliou
Marie Christine
MC
Meurin
Philippe
P
Tabet
Jean-Yves
JY
Corone
Sonia
S
D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D012107:Research Design; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome