Functional status of patients during subacute recovery from coronary artery bypass surgery.

Background: Patients recovering from coronary artery bypass (CAB) surgery are particularly vulnerable to impaired functional status because in addition to the direct effects of heart disease on cardiac performance, many surgical factors may contribute to loss of function.

Objectives: The purposes of this study were to describe functional status across multiple domains using performance-based and self-report assessments and to determine the relationship among different domains of functional status in patients recovering subacutely (<6 months) from CAB surgery.

Methods: The participants in this study (n = 25) had undergone CAB surgery in the past 6 months. This cross-sectional descriptive study measured functional status in several domains using self-report and performance-based assessments.

Results: The study results indicate that participants had deficits in health-related quality of life, activities of daily living performance, endurance/aerobic capacity, and cognitive/memory ability. Several correlations between the scores for outcome measures in different domains were found in this study.

Conclusions: Impaired functional status occurs in patients recovering subacutely from CAB surgery. Different aspects of functional status are related, and an understanding of these relationships may help to improve the medical management of patients after CAB surgery.