Aerobic exercise training improves cardiovascular fitness in children who have undergone surgical repair of a congenital heart defect, according to a team of Italian doctors.

“I’m convinced that physical exercise is very important for all congenital heart disease patients, as it is important for every child,” Dr. Ornella Milanesi from the University of Padua told AMN Health.

“Unfortunately, the general opinion is that children don’t need to be retrained after cardiac surgery,” the clinician continued. Also, the parents of children with heart defects “tend to protect them, trying to avoid any kind of possible danger, and to underestimate their physical capability.”

Milanesi’s team enrolled 10 such children in an 8-month aerobic exercise training program. The kids were 7 to 10 years old and had had surgery to correct a cardiac malformation when they were 1 or 2 years of age.

After the training program, the children showed an 11 percent increase in exercise capacity and a 19 percent increase in maximal oxygen usage, the researchers report in the American Journal of Cardiology.

“Our impression is that, as a result of the training, the children became more outgoing and better able to participate socially, as well as athletically, in peer activities,” Milanesi added.

The team is trying their approach with older children and young adults who have undergone cardiac repair. “Unfortunately, the preliminary results are not as encouraging as they have been in the children,” Milanesi said. “Our opinion is that it is very difficult to re-train adult patients who don’t have any habit of physical activity.”

SOURCE: American Journal of Cardiology, January 1, 2005.