INTRODUCTION
Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has provided improved quality of life for patients with coronary heart disease1. Despite constant innovations and the increase in the quality of interventions, the surgical procedure is a difficult time for the patient and also for his family. The high complexity of the procedure can cause stress, anxiety and depression as the main neuropsychological manifestations2,3.
In addition to being correlated with the large number of recurrences, death and prolonged hospitalization, anxiety and depression can result in poor prognosis and are associated with psychological stress that affects the health of patients undergoing cardiac surgery3. Several studies have highlighted the importance of assessing psycho-emotional stressors in patients before and after myocardial revascularization. As an example, high levels of anxiety are associated with depression, which negatively affects physiological parameters and influences the patient’s recovery in several factors4.
Cardiac anxiety (CA) is defined as an unpleasant emotional state or condition with experiential, physiological and behavioral components5. CA may remain elevated in the postoperative period due to factors such as low guidance on care during this period and the ventilatory restriction generated by pain and reduced muscle strength caused mainly by median sternotomy and surgical manipulation6,7. Thus, Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) becomes an alternative to reduce the loss of ventilatory muscle strength and, consequently, eliminate the stressor and limiting factor that is ventilatory muscle weakness8,9.
Several studies use IMT as an instrument to optimize outcomes such as functional capacity, length of hospital stay and postoperative pulmonary complications9. However, there is a knowledge gap about the impact of IMT on cardiac anxiety. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the impact of IMT on inspiratory muscle strength and its relationship to cardiac anxiety in patients undergoing myocardial revascularization.