Cardiac Rehabilitation in Patients with Mechanical Circulatory Support

Background Heart failure in a terminal stage is usually treated with a heart transplant or with implantation of ventricular assist devices (VAD). VAD treatment is increasingly chosen as a permanent therapy. Problem The growing number of VAD implants leads to an increased need for rehabilitation programs. The development of standards is essential. So far only a few single center reports with a limited number of patients have been published. Guidelines on this subject are not available. Results A working group of German rehabilitation physicians was installed in order to analyze the problems and to develop strategies for the process of rehabilitation of VAD-patients, ending in a consensus statement [1]. The most important aspects of rehabilitation aiming at the safest possible participation in everyday life with a VAD are summarized here.