Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Feb 26, 2024; 16(2): 67-72
Published online Feb 26, 2024. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v16.i2.67
Cardiac rehabilitation after cardiac surgery: An important underutilized treatment strategy
Christos Kourek, Stavros Dimopoulos
Christos Kourek, Medical School of Athens, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 15772, Greece
Stavros Dimopoulos, Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens 17674, Greece
Stavros Dimopoulos, Clinical Ergospirometry, Exercise & Rehabilitation Laboratory, 1st Critical Care Medicine Department, Evangelismos Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 10676, Greece
Author contributions: Kourek C and Dimopoulos S contributed to this paper; Dimopoulos S designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript; Kourek C contributed to the discussion and design of the manuscript; Kourek C and Dimopoulos S contributed to the writing, editing the manuscript, illustrations, and review of literature.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Stavros Dimopoulos, MD, PhD, Director, Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, L.A.Syggrou 356, Athens 17674, Greece. stdimop@gmail.com
Received: December 10, 2023
Peer-review started: December 10, 2023
First decision: December 19, 2023
Revised: December 21, 2023
Accepted: January 15, 2024
Article in press: January 15, 2024
Published online: February 26, 2024
Processing time: 72 Days and 11.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Cardiac rehabilitation is a medically supervised program designed to maintain or improve cardiovascular health, and should be considered as an important treatment strategy in patients after cardiac surgery. It has multiple beneficial effects on functional capacity, endothelial and skeletal muscle function, and quality of life. Recent advances have been made in cardiac rehabilitation during the last decades, including the use of artificial intelligence, simulation, telemedicine and virtual cardiac rehabilitation that improve compliance. As a result, reduced hospital readmissions and decreased healthcare costs are being observed in the modern healthcare systems.