REQUIRED LENGTH OF STATIONARY REHABILITAT ION PROGRAMS IN PATIENTS WITH MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION, AORTOCORONARY BYPASS-GRAFTING OR HEART-VALVEREPLACEMENT

The length of hospital stay and the clinical findings of 764 patients with survived myocardial infarction (MI), 455 patients after aortocoro nary bypass grafting (ACB) and 127 patients after prosthetic heart val ve replacement (HVR) were compared with the following results: In the Federal Republic of Germany, patients with cardiac diseases spent a 50 -70% longer time in community hospitals, compared with other western c ountries.No correlation was found between the severity of cardiac impa irment and the length of stay in community hospitals after MI or cardi ac surgery. Shortening of clinical rehabilitation (''Anschlulssheilbeh andlung'', AHB) from 4 to 3 weeks showed no negative effect on the exe rcise capacity or on the ability of return to work. In the multilogist ic test model the exercise capacity at the end of the rehabilitation c orrelated positively with vital capacity, body weight, left ventricula r ejection fraction and negatively with age and with the number of dis eased coronary vessels (MI and ACB patients), thereby explaining 35.8% of variance. Since in uncomplicated reconvalescence there is no recog nisable advantage of stationary treatment for more than 5 (max. 6) wee ks after MI, ACB- or HVR-Op, our results indicate the necessity of an early transfer of those patients during the 2nd week after MI or cardi ac surgery from community hospitals to the rehabilitation clinic as we ll as a shortening of AHB time.