Seventy-five years of cardiovascular rehabilitation in Mexico

Abstract

Patients suffering from cardiovascular disease require comprehensive medical attention that involves therapies and procedures necessary to reintegrate them optimally to their personal, family, work, and social life. Interventions aimed at achieving these goals are included in cardiac rehabilitation programs. These programs are designed to limit the harmful physiological and psychological effects of heart disease, reduce the risk of sudden death or reinfarction, control cardiovascular symptoms, stabilize or reverse the atherosclerosis process, and improve the psychosocial and vocational status of patients. These programs have existed in Mexico since the 1940s and have evolved over the years, adapting to the disease conditions present in our country, starting with therapies to treat patients with rheumatic heart disease until the application of physical exercise in patients with heart failure complexes congenital heart disease or pulmonary arterial hypertension. These activities are of a transdisciplinary nature and involve the integration of cardiologists, physiotherapists, psychologists, and nutritionists among others. At present, these programs have spread throughout the Mexican Republic thank rehabilitation cardiologists graduating from the main health institutions in the country such as health institutes, Mexican Social Security Institute, and Institute of Security and Social Services of State Workers. In this document, the origins of rehabilitation from the pre-Hispanic era to the present will be discussed, highlighting the contributions in teaching and research of the physicians who have practiced in this area in the aforementioned institutions.

Current role and future perspectives of cardiac rehabilitation in coronary heart disease

“…Over the last decades, the important role of exercise in the management of individuals with IHD has come under the spotlight[ 19 , 20 ]. Though its potential role in the modulation of anginous symptoms is often ascribed to the classical work of Heberden in the 18 th century, the first descriptions of exercise-based rehabilitation in individuals after a myocardial infarction were only reported several years later, well into the 20 th century[ 19 , 21 , 22 ]. Importantly, these early pioneers had a crucial role in changing the then-current status quo of prolonged immobilization, by reporting on the benefits of exercise (adapted to the individual patient) in this specific setting[ 19 ].…”