Structured exercise training and rehabilitation in patients with acute venous thromboembolism: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Thrombosis of the legs and pulmonary embolism are common conditions associated with long-term consequences for affected patients. These consequences include limitations in daily life, persistent symptoms, and reduced quality of life. Early exercise training and rehabilitation within 3 months of diagnosis might support affected patients in maintaining their physical functioning and preventing such long-term consequences. Therefore, we searched several databases for literature on medical studies evaluating exercise training and rehabilitation in this situation. We only considered medical studies that compared the exercise training and rehabilitation to standard treatment of thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (anticoagulation), with patients being randomly assigned to either treatment strategy. We identified four studies including 250 patients. Overall, patients tolerated the exercise training and rehabilitation very well, without adverse events or worsening of their thrombosis or pulmonary embolism. However, there was no clear benefit of exercise training or rehabilitation. This might be due to the small number of included patients. To summarize, exercise training and rehabilitation appear to be safe in patients with thrombosis of the legs and pulmonary embolism, but it remains to be clarified whether it can prevent long-term consequences.