Introduction:

Early cardiac rehabilitation (ECR) implemented in the Infarction Code (IC) protocol is a strategy in the care of acute myocardial infarction. The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of ECR in IC-included patients.

Method:

Case-control study. Consecutive patients diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction and admitted to a cardiology hospital between February 2015 and June 2017 were included. Two groups were created: I and II, before and after IC and ECR.

Results:

We included 1141 patients, 220 in group I and 921 in group II, with an age of 62.64 ± 10.53 years; 80.9 % were males and 19.1 % females. The main risk factors for groups I and II were sedentariness, 92.7 % versus 77.8 %; dyslipidemia, 80.9 % versus 55.8 %; hypertension, 63.2 % versus 62 %; smoking, 66.8 % versus 59.2 %; and diabetes, 54.5 % versus 59.1 %. Rehabilitation was started earlier (1.8 ± 1.6 versus 4.2 ± 3.2) and the days spent in intensive therapy and hospitalization were fewer in group II (2.4 ± 2.2 versus 4.8 ± 4.1 and 8.6 ± 5.2 versus 12.3 ± 7.7, p < 0.0001, respectively), as well as the days of disability (58.6 versus 67.7).

Conclusions:

IC and ECR are complementary strategies that allow an early discharge from intensive therapy and hospitalization, as well as better quality of life and fewer days of disability leave.