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.