Keywords

The meta-analyses published in recent years demonstrate the unequivocally positive role of rehabilitation, also in reference to patients who underwent cardiac surgery and procedures of interventional cardiology The efficacy of rehabilitation is expressed not only through improvement in physical efficiency and the parameters of quality of life as well as positive correction of the ischaemic heart disease risk factors, but also through the decrease in mortality, both general and heart-related, to an extent comparable with other modern methods of therapy Rehabilitation is also very effective in relation to patients of heightened risk – with cardiac insufficiency and depression As yet the mechanisms causing the above-mentioned beneficial effects have not been explained, nor has the effectiveness of rehabilitation methods with regard to various patient groups – women, the elderly with co-existent diabetes – been verified Also unsolved is the question of cost effectiveness of various forms of rehabilitation in the aspect of influence on the quality of life, frequency of hospitalisation and repeated interventions The methods and effects of rehabilitation in the case of patients after cardiac surgery other than CABG have also been inadequately verified