A Case Report on Cardiovascular Rehabilitation After Repair of Residual Aortic Dissection: An Under-Explored Benefit?

Aortic aneurysms present a high risk of dissection and mortality.They are associated with decreased functional capacity and activities of daily living after surgical correction.Although supervised cardiovascular rehabilitation (SCR) is an important therapeutic resource in the treatment of patients with cardiovascular diseases, its use in patients with aortic aneurysms after dissection is still incipient and little discussed.The aim of this study is to foster discussion on the safety and benefit of SCR in patients with aortic aneurysms after corrected dissection through the description of a case report.The patient was male, 45 years old, with grade II obesity, heart failure with normal ejection fraction, systemic arterial hypertension, and familial dyslipidemia.He was referred to the SCR service of the Actus-Cordios Clinic in July 2022 after correction of residual chronic dissection in the descending aorta.He underwent SCR for seven months.This case report was approved by the Ethics and Research Committee under CAAE No. 94518825.0.0000.5544.After seven months of treatment, there was an increase of 240 meters, representing a 200% improvement in the 6-minute walk test (120 vs. 360 meters), a reduction in blood pressure (140 vs. 125 mmHg and 90 vs. 80 mmHg, respectively, for systolic and diastolic blood pressure), in addition to regaining the autonomy to work and study.In this case report, we document the feasibility of an SCR program following the repair of a Type A aortic dissection with residual aortic disease.No clinically detected cardiovascular or aortic adverse events were reported during the program, while we observed an increase in functional capacity and a reduction in resting blood pressure, accompanied by a return to activities of daily living.These observations that the multidisciplinary team to consider SCR for this population whenever there is no absolute contraindication.