Cardiac surgery in East Africa: a profile of cases and referral to physiotherapy.

BACKGROUND

A significant increase in cardiac surgery has been observed globally, with prolonged length of stay (LOS) still prevalent due to post-operative complications. Physiotherapy pre and post cardiac surgery is known to reduce these complications and LOS, however cases referred for physiotherapy is unknown.

OBJECTIVE

The study aimed to describe the profile and pre- and post-operative referrals to physiotherapy of patients admitted to the cardiothoracic unit at a selected hospital in Tanzania over a four-year period.

METHOD

Descriptive, retrospective design. A data extraction sheet was used to capture demographic, cardiac disease, ICU and hospital LOS, post-operative complications and physiotherapy referral data of all patients ≥18 years of age.

RESULTS

105 cardiac surgeries were performed. Patients' mean age was 30.6 years (SD=10.48) and 54.3% (n=57/105) were female. Cardiac surgeries performed declined from 48.6% (n=51/105) in 2010 to 10.5% (n=11/105) in 2013. Cardiac arrest (33%, n=7/21), pneumonia (19%, n=4/21) and lung collapse (4.8%, n=1/21) were the notable documented post-operative complications. ICU mortality was highest (72,7%, n=8/11). Only 1% (n=1/105) of cases were referred pre-operatively versus 77.7% (n=80/103) post-operatively for physiotherapy.

CONCLUSION

Cardiac surgeries were reduced annually but the post-operative complications need to be reduced. Pre-operative physiotherapy referral may reduce pneumonia and lung collapse following cardiac surgery.