Authors

• Mijana Barišić — Clinic for treatment, prevention and rehabilitation of cardiovascular diseases, Thalassotherapia, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0001-5774-7488
• Ingrid Buljanović — Clinic for treatment, prevention and rehabilitation of cardiovascular diseases, Thalassotherapia, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-0325-2847
• Darija Bostijančić — Clinic for treatment, prevention and rehabilitation of cardiovascular diseases, Thalassotherapia, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0002-8417-9962
• Sabina Škifić — Clinic for treatment, prevention and rehabilitation of cardiovascular diseases, Thalassotherapia, Opatija, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-0526-6628

Keywords

surgical cardiac revascularization, quality of life

DOI

Full Text

**Introduction**: Quality of life presents the patient’s subjective experience of living in all of it social, physical and mental aspects, and his ability to perform daily activities. Recently, it has been often cited that quality of life is more important than just extending life following a surgical procedure, which is often forgotten in clinical practice. Cardiac rehabilitation is an important set of procedures that not only enhance the physical capabilities of the patient, but also influence it’s mental and social standing. It is well known that the process of cardiac rehabilitation decreases psychological stress and, therefore, increases the quality of life. (1-4) The aim of the study was to determine the quality of life of patients enrolled into the program of stationary cardiac rehabilitation within three months from surgical cardiac revascularization. **Patients and Methods:** We enrolled subjects within three months from surgical revascularization. All subjects filled the health questionnaire SF-36 that is regarded by many authors as the most reliable tool to measure the quality of life in patients with ischemic heart disease. SF-36 questionnaire includes eight dimensions of health; physical function, restriction due to physical health, bodily pains, general health, vitality, social functioning, restrictions due to emotional problems and mental health. SF-36 also represents two general concepts of health, i.e. physical and mental health. **Results:** The study involved 100 subjects out of which 74 were male and 26 were female. Median age was 67 years. Revascularization only was performed in 85 subjects, while 15 subjects had both revascularization and a valve procedure done. The subjects had rated their total physical functioning quality with an average of 37.37±7.6 points, and the overall quality of mental functioning with 50.61±10.67 points. **Conclusion:** Evaluating quality of life garners more and more attention when dealing with the evaluation of disease influence, treatment effect and all the other factors that affect the patient’s life. A number of studies show that cardiac rehabilitation leads to significant improvement in the physical, mental and emotional aspects of patient lives.

Literature

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