It is a program to help the cardiac patients recover quickly and improve their overall physical, mental and social functioning. The goal of cardiac rehabilitation is to slow the disease process, stabilize or to reverse the progression of heart disease and thus preventing heart disease, cardiac event or death.

 

Cardiac rehabilitation team includes family doctors, cardiologist, nurses, excise specialists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, nutritionists, psychologists and other mental specialists.

Cardiac rehabilitation programs include

• Counseling the patient so that they understand and manage the disease process.
• Initiating exercise program
• Counseling on nutrition
• Relieving cardiac symptoms
• Helping the patient to modify the risk factors like high blood pressure, smoking, high blood cholesterol, physical activity, obesity and diabetes.
• Providing vocational guidance to enable the patient to return to work
• Supplying information on physical limitations
• Lending emotional support
• Counseling on appropriate use of prescribed medications. 

Selection of patients:

• Lower risk patients following an acute heart attack.
• Patient who has undergone coronary bypass surgery.
• Patient with chronic, stable angina pectoris.
• Patient who have undergone heart transplantation.
• Patients who have had percutaneous coronary angioplasty.
• Patients with stable heart failure.
• Patients with stable heart failure.
• Patient who have undergone noncoronary cardiac surgery.