An elderly-centered, personalized, physiotherapy program early after cardiac surgery.

Background: Early post-surgery in-hospital rehabilitation in elderly patients should be aimed at accelerating the recovery of the highest level of functional autonomy and reducing the hospital stay.

Design: We designed a personalized physiotherapy program tailored to the frailty level of over-70-year-old patients soon after cardiac surgery. The aims of this study were (a) to validate our frailty-based approach for functional stratification of the patients, and (b) to assess the effect of the individualized program on independence and mobility, and compare it with our usual program.

Methods: We followed 224 consecutive patients aged 70-87 years, who followed either the personalized (n= 150) or usual (n= 74) program. All patients underwent a comprehensive physical functioning evaluation at the baseline and at the end of hospitalization.

Results: The frailty-based stratification was successful in identifying those patients at higher risk of falls, with heavy nursing needs, greater dependency, and poorer heath status perception. On discharge, both groups had significantly improved on all measures of independence and mobility, but most of these changes (nursing needs, mobility, balance, and muscle strength) were significantly greater (P < 0.05) in the intervention group. These patients also had a significantly shorter length of stay (17.5 ± 8 vs. 21 ± 4 days, P = 0.0002), and 91% of them could be discharged in a state of substantial independence.

Conclusion: An elderly-centered stratification based on functional frailty is useful to identify patients with more dependency and greater needs. A consequent personalized physiotherapy program designed to enhance independent mobility soon after cardiac surgery is safe and well accepted, and is more effective then usual physiotherapy.