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World J Transplant. Nov 18, 2021; 11(11): 466-479
Published online Nov 18, 2021. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v11.i11.466
Exercise training in heart transplantation
Christos Kourek, Eleftherios Karatzanos, Serafim Nanas, Andreas Karabinis, Stavros Dimopoulos
Christos Kourek, Eleftherios Karatzanos, Serafim Nanas, Stavros Dimopoulos, Clinical Ergospirometry, Exercise & Rehabilitation Laboratory, Evaggelismos Hospital, Athens 10676, Attica, Greece
Andreas Karabinis, Stavros Dimopoulos, Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens 17674, Greece
Author contributions: Kourek C and Karatzanos E reviewed the literature; and Kourek C drafted the manuscript; Nanas S and Karabinis A revised the manuscript; Dimopoulos S designed the research study and revised the drafted manuscript; and all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Stavros Dimopoulos, MD, PhD, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Doctor, Postdoc, Research Scientist, Senior Researcher, Staff Physician, Clinical Ergospirometry, Exercise & Rehabilitation Laboratory, Evaggelismos Hospital, 45-47 Ipsilantou str., Athens 10676, Attica, Greece. stdimop@gmail.com
Received: March 1, 2021
Peer-review started: March 1, 2021
First decision: July 29, 2021
Revised: August 12, 2021
Accepted: October 27, 2021
Article in press: October 27, 2021
Published online: November 18, 2021
Processing time: 256 Days and 3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Heart transplantation is the gold standard treatment of end-stage heart failure (HF). Heart transplantation patients present lower exercise capacity due to cardiac, vascular and skeletal muscle abnormalities. Exercise training improves exercise capacity, cardiac and vascular endothelial function in heart transplant recipients. Pre-rehabilitation regular aerobic or combined exercise is beneficial for patients with end-stage HF awaiting heart transplantation. All heart transplant recipients either hospitalized or after hospital discharge should be referred to a cardiac rehabilitation program. Individualized training still remains the most applicable approach despite the fact that high intensity interval training seems to have more benefits than moderate intensity continuous training.