ABSTRACT
Cardiac rehabilitation is an ongoing multidisciplinary intervention. The goal is to restore cardiac patients to their optimal levels of physical, psychological, social, and vocational function. This chapter focuses on the in-hospital cardiac rehabilitation provided by physical therapists for patients recovering from coronary artery bypass graft surgery and heart transplantation at Duke University Medical Center. Patients enter the cardiac rehabilitation program by referral of their cardiac surgeon. In general, the postoperative cardiac patient who is clinically stable and infection-free may safely begin the progressive activity portion of the in-patient cardiac rehabilitation program perhaps as early as 24 hours after surgery. Individualized prescriptive exercise is the hallmark of rehabilitative physical activity and has been shown to be feasible and safe for appropriately selected patients. The prescriptive components of rehabilitative physical activity include the frequency, duration, and intensity of exercise and the type of exercise to be undertaken.
