Why carry out this study?

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a cost-effective, class 1a recommended part of cardiac care for patients with cardiovascular disease that generally takes 3–4 weeks to complete.

CR has shown to improve various important patient outcomes, including exercise capacity, control of cardiovascular risk factors, quality of life, hospital readmission rates, and mortality rates.

This review gives an overview of the current advances in CR and summarizes its benefits.

What was learned from the study?

The efficacy of multimodal rehabilitative interventions has been shown in several studies.

The reduction of risk factors such as physical exercise, nicotine abstinence, weight loss, and cholesterol lowering by CR can improve quality of life and reduce mortality.

Intensified follow-up programs improve the clinical outcome of patients with cardiac disease and should be offered whenever possible.