[Inpatient length of stay and physical capacity after aortocoronary bypass operation, after heart valve replacement and myocardial infarct].

The present investigation was performed to determine the dependence of the length of stay in community hospitals and rehabilitation clinics from patient characteristics and physical activity at the end of treatment. Comparing age, end-diastolic volume index, left ventricular ejection fraction, number of stenosed coronary arteries, number of bypass grafts, levels of physical exercise, body mass index and the ratio total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol, no significant differences were found in patients, who reached the rehabilitation clinic in the early postoperative period (7.4 +/- 2.0 days, n = 98), after 15-28 days (n = 74) or later than 28 days (n = 156) after bypass-surgery. Similar results were observed in 103 patients after heart-valve replacement, who arrived at the rehabilitation clinic after a corresponding length of hospital care like the bypass patients. Also, no significant differences in the clinical characteristics and physical activity appeared in patients who were admitted in the early phase (9.2 +/- 4.5 days) after transmural myocardial infarction (n = 37) and those entering the rehabilitation clinic after 26.7 +/- 9.4 days of hospital stay (n = 32). The absence of any relationship between the length of stay in hospitals on the one hand and severity of the heart disease on the other hand points out that the whole duration of stay in community hospitals and rehabilitation clinics after surgical intervention and also after transmural myocardial infarction could be drastically shortened by an optimal cooperation of both, hospitals and rehabilitation clinics, without any impairment of clinical results.