Early Mobilization After CABG Surgery (EMAC)

Ta-Chung Chao

Status: Completed

Conditions: Coronary Artery Disease; Coronary Artery Bypass

Treatments: Other: Standard Hospital Nursing Care; Behavioral: Structured Early Mobilization Training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07230561

FEMH-2024-C-094 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

113105-F

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a structured early exercise program can help patients recover better in people who have just had coronary artery bypass surgery. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Does this early exercise improve fitness and walking ability?
• Does it reduce the risk of muscle weakness (sarcopenia) after surgery?
• Does it improve patients' quality of life?
• Does it reduce feelings of anxiety and depression? Researchers will compare the group receiving the structured early exercise program (plus standard hospital care) to the group receiving standard hospital care only to see if the early exercise program leads to better and faster recovery.

Participants in the exercise group will:

• Start supervised exercise sessions within 24 hours after their surgery.
• Perform these sessions twice a day for 30 minutes each, for 5 days.
• The exercises include warm-ups, breathing exercises, walking or stationary cycling, and light resistance training.

Enrollment: 40 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 40 to 85 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• age between 40 and 85 years;
• undergoing first-time CABG surgery;
• no diagnosed psychiatric disorders or musculoskeletal diseases and did not require any assistive mobility devices;
• ability to communicate in Mandarin or Taiwanese;
• agreed to participate and provided written informed consent after receiving a comprehensive explanation of this trial.

Exclusion criteria

• preoperative use of continuous 24-hour nitroglycerin infusion or inotropic agents;
• undergoing emergency cardiac surgery or requiring admission to the intensive care unit preoperatively;
• occurrence of major intraoperative complications (e.g., major hemorrhage, stroke, requirement for resuscitation, or severe delirium).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Exercise Group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants received standard hospital nursing care PLUS supervised, structured early mobilization training. The protocol was developed by integrating Phase 1 cardiac rehabilitation guidelines with an expert consensus approach from a multidisciplinary team. The intervention began within 24 hours postoperatively, was conducted for 5 days, twice daily, 30 min/session. Sessions included a 5-min warm-up (active/passive ROM), a 20-min main training (FITT principle: Intensity at resting heart rate + 20 bpm, max 120 bpm; Type: inspiratory muscle training, ROM, stationary cycling or bedside ambulation, resistance training), and a 5-min cool-down.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Structured Early Mobilization Training

Other: Standard Hospital Nursing Care

Comparison Group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants received standard hospital nursing care only. This included physiological monitoring, medication counseling, psychological support, disease-specific health education, instruction on the use of an incentive spirometer, and education on the importance and methods of rehabilitation.

Treatment:

Other: Standard Hospital Nursing Care