Article

Rehabilitation is a recommended first-line therapy for patients with peripheral
arterial disease (PAD) and consists of supervised exercise training and
therapeutic education. Proved benefits are significant: improve pain-free walking
distance, functional status and quality of life; reduce cardiovascular risk factors and mortality.
At least three sessions weekly are recommended during 3
months. Exercise conditioning (global training and lower limb resistance
training) is tailored by the preliminary evaluation of walking ability (free
walking test, treadmill tests, 6-min walk test) and of the cardiac tolerance
(maximal effort tests). Then the exercise workload is progressively improved. The
four main goals of therapeutic education are: smoking cessation, prolonged
physical activity, Mediterranean diet and observing pharmacological therapies.
The limited compliance of the patients with PAD is often an obstacle for
educational needs. The chronic patients with important functional limitations and
unchecked risk factors will be preferentially enrolled in such programs. When a
revascularization is discussed, rehabilitation can serve as trial treatment.
Despite its efficacy, rehabilitation is still underutilized in clinical practice
and should be promoted.
CI - Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS ; FRANCAIS