BACKGROUND: Claudication may severely compromise both the performance and the time of walking. OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the effectiveness of guided physical exercise in the rehabilitation of patients with intermittent claudication. METHODS: A series of patients with Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) and intermittent claudication were studied. The exercise protocol comprised sessions three times per week over five months giving a total of 34 sessions. Bruce Protocol was used to evaluate exercise (BREF/1998-OMS) that considered of 26 questions (divided in four domains: physical, social relations, psychological and environment) and the level of pain was measured using Borg's Scale. All tests and measurements were performed at baseline and repeated after the sessions. RESULTS: In a group of 15 individuals with intermittent claudication the level of pain, when compared to the initial measurement, decreased by 66.7% (p<0.05), the distance walked had a mean improvement of 173.31 meters (p<0.05) with a mean gain of 3 minutes and 5 seconds (p<0.05) to complete the test. In respect to the Questionnaire of Quality of Life, data demonstrated significant improvements for the physical domain (p=0.022), social relationship (p=0.012) and the overall score (p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The effectiveness of guided physical exercise was demonstrated in the treatment with improvement in functional capacity of patients with intermittent claudication due to peripheral artery disease. Pain relief was observed improving the walking time and facilitating daily and occupational activities using this approach.
Intermittent claudication; Exercise; Pain
