Abstract
When the cardiac rehabilitation programme at Astley Ainslie Hospital, Edinburgh, UK, was instituted in 1976, it served predominantly patients under 65 years of age who had suffered a recent myocardial infarction. We describe a detailed survey of the medical records of all cardiac admissions to the Rehabilitation Medicine Unit of the hospital during 1986-1990. This survey stresses the changing face of cardiac rehabilitation which has now developed fundamentally into a post cardiac surgical rehabilitation service, catering to an increasingly elderly group of patients. Perhaps this is a logical development as cardiologists and general physicians become more aware of the rehabilitation needs of patients post myocardial infarction and these are instituted both in the acute setting and as an outpatient service. In contrast, cardiothoracic surgical units with the need for high technology and specialist intensive care skills are perhaps environments less suited to the institution of rehabilitation services.
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