Improvement in Quality of Life and Exercise Capacity After Coronary Bypass Surgery

Abstract

The greatest improvement in quality of life after coronary artery bypass grafting appeared in those patients with the most impaired exercise capacity, those with the most severe angina pectoris, and women. Improvement in exercise capacity was greatest in patients with the poorest preoperative exercise capacity and in men. These findings indicate that exercise testing is of limited value as a measure of quality of life and that assessment by a questionnaire has a complementary place.

Quality of Life After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…One study was quasi-experimental, and the other studies ( n = 15) were cohort studies. Regarding the countries where the studies were performed, n = 3 were conducted in the USA ( n = 3) [ 14 , 15 , 16 ] and n = 5 in Sweden [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Of the selected studies, which were performed between 1997 and 2020, 11 involved elective surgery [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”

“…The quality of life of patients undergoing cardiac catheterisation improved dramatically between 6 weeks [ 23 ] and 3 months [ 17 , 26 ] or 6 months [ 15 , 21 ] after surgery, particularly with regard to the group of items encompassing physical problems [ 23 ]. Sexual health problems in men persisted throughout the follow-up period [ 17 , 18 ]. Physical problems improved according to the functional capacity of the patients prior to surgery [ 14 ].…”

“…Physical problems improved according to the functional capacity of the patients prior to surgery [ 14 ]. Female sex [ 18 , 29 ], age, hypertension, obesity, renal failure, cerebrovascular disease, unstable angina [ 28 ], being a smoker, and having a psychiatric pathology [ 16 ] are all factors that have been shown to delay the recovery of post-surgery quality of life [ 19 , 20 , 24 ].…”

“…For the mental aspect of quality of life, the improvement in the score ranged from a maximum of 3.6 points [ 22 ] to a minimum of 0.3 points [ 23 ]. Studies using the NHP questionnaire all showed improvements in quality of life scores with differences of up to 6 points after 10 years [ 19 ], 10 points after two years [ 17 ], and, in some cases, the differences in quality of life being greater for women than men [ 18 ].…”

“…Additionally, there was only a limited number of studies with the necessary data to perform the meta-analysis, and the influence of other important factors on quality of life has not been included in many of these studies. Future research on the subject should include values correlating quality of life with other variables (like gender or age as indicated in some studies [ 18 , 28 , 29 ]) that allow the meta-analytical estimation of factors that may influence quality of life post-CABG, as well as experimental comparisons of how different CABG techniques or treatments influence quality of life, in order to determine the most cost-effective method.…”