†These authors contributed equally.
Academic Editors: Julio Núñez Villota and Peter Kokkinos
Background:
Cardiac rehabilitation is an important part of the therapeutic regimen for
chronic heart failure. Acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF)
in hospitalized patients were usually excluded
from cardiac rehabilitation programs. The initiation of cardiac rehabilitation
with ADHF usually occurs after hospital discharge. This study included recent
clinical trials in patients beginning early exercise-based rehabilitation during
their hospitalization and compared the efficacy and safety of early cardiac
rehabilitation to ADHF patients who didn’t receive cardiac rehabilitation.
Methods: Clinical trials were searched from the EMBASE, PubMed,
CENTRAL, and WAN FANG. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in which
early exercise-based rehabilitation started during the index hospitalization,
from the establishment of the database to July 2022. RevMan 5.4 was used for the
statistical analysis. Results: Six studies, with a total of 668 patients
were included; 336 patients in the early rehabilitation group and 332 patients in
the control group. Exercise capacity was significantly improved in the 6-minute
walk distance [mean difference (MD): 32.97, 95% CI: 31.03 to 34.90, p