In-hospital electrical muscle stimulation for patients early after heart failure decompensation: results from a prospective randomised controlled pilot trial

Background Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) is being evaluated as a possible alternative to exercise training to improve functional capacity in severely deconditioned patients with heart failure (HF). However, there is insufficient data on delayed effects of EMS starting early after decompensation. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of a short inpatient EMS intervention in severely deconditioned patients with HF on functional capacity and quality of life (QoL) over a follow-up period of 1 month.Methods This is a prospective randomised sham-controlled pilot study. 45 patients hospitalised for decompensated systolic HF (58% men, mean age 66.4±10.2 years) were randomised to EMS (n=22) or sham stimulation (n=23) of lower limbs starting within 3 days after admission. The intervention included 7–10 sessions lasting from 30 to 90 min. The 6-minute walking test distance (6-MWTD), Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) and Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) were evaluated at baseline, discharge and after 1 month.Results All patients completed the programme with good EMS tolerance. 37 patients were included in the final analysis. At discharge, 6-MWTD improved from 206,1±61,3 to 299.5±91 m, DASI from 12.1±5.6 to 18.3±7.2 and MLHFQ from 55.6±8.5 to 34.2±9 with EMS compared with smaller improvements in the sham group (p