ClinicalTrials.Veeva

Menu

CopenHeartVR - Integrated Rehabilitation of Patients After Heart Valve Surgery

Rigshospitalet logo

Rigshospitalet

Status and phase

Completed
Phase 2

Conditions

Heart Valve Disease

Treatments

Other: Integrated rehabilitation

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT01558765
RHCopenHeartVR

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of an integrated rehabilitation programme, consisting of physical exercise training and psycho-educational consultations, for patients after heart valve surgery.

The hypothesis is that integrated rehabilitation can improve physical capacity measured by V02 peak, self-rated mental health and life quality by validated questionnaires such as SF-36, and other objective parameters such as cardiac-specific biomarkers and echocardiographic measurements.

Full description

Worldwide, the incidence of heart valve disease is increasing. Improved surgical techniques, rising age and possibility for re-operation leads to a rising number of patients having heart valve surgery. The gap between hospital discharge and returning to normal life is obvious. Integrated rehabilitation could probably reduce hospital readmissions, increase physical capacity and increase self-rated mental health and quality of life. Therefore the aim of this study is to explore if patients after heart valve surgery will benefit from an integrated rehabilitation programme consisting of physical exercise and psycho-educational intervention.

A randomized clinical trial is conducted to investigate the effect and meaning of an integrated rehabilitation programme on the physical and psychosocial functioning of patients after heart valve surgery. The trial is a parallel arm design.

A mixed methods embedded experimental design is chosen to include both quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate the intervention. The intervention consists of five psycho-educational consultations provided by specialized nurses and a twelve week individualized exercise training programme provided by physiotherapists. A qualitative post-intervention study will explore rehabilitation participation experiences.

Along with the above stated hypothesis, it will be observed whether integrated rehabilitation can reduce anxiety, depression, health care utilisation, mortality and work cessation.

210 patients will be included.

Validated questionnaires (e.g. SF-36), cardiopulmonary exercise testing, 6 minute walking test, echocardiography, cardiac-specific biomarkers and qualitative interviews will be used to evaluate the effect and meaning of the programme.

Enrollment

147 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Admitted to hospital for elective heart valve surgery at Rigshospitalet, Denmark
  • 18 years or older
  • Speak and understand Danish
  • Providing written informed consent

Exclusion criteria

  • Known ischemic heart disease prior to heart valve surgery
  • Is included in an other clinical trial investigating the effects of physical training and psycho-educational intervention
  • Unable to understand and cooperate to study instructions
  • Pregnant and/or breast feeding
  • Performing exercise training at high level and several times a week
  • No written informed consent

Trial design

Primary purpose

Prevention

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

None (Open label)

147 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention group
Experimental group
Description:
Patients receive integrated rehabilitation
Treatment:
Other: Integrated rehabilitation
Control group
No Intervention group
Description:
Patients receive usual follow-up care without physical exercise

Trial contacts and locations

1

Loading...

Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

Clinical trials

Find clinical trialsTrials by location
© Copyright 2026 Veeva Systems