Data showed improvements secondary to exercise in ' physical function ' and ' general health ' .
The other domains - ' role physical ' , ' bodily pain ' , ' vitality ' , ' social ' , ' role emotional ' , and ' mental health ' - did not show improvement at six months .
Although results showed significant heterogeneity between trials , population s and outcomes were comparable overall , with findings relevant to the claudicant population .
High- quality evidence shows that exercise programmes provided important benefit compared with placebo or usual care in improving both pain-free and maximum walking distance in people with leg pain from IC who were considered to be fit for exercise intervention .
Exercise did not improve ABI , and we found no evidence of an effect of exercise on amputation or mortality .
Exercise may improve quality of life when compared with placebo or usual care .
BACKGROUND Exercise programmes are a relatively inexpensive , low-risk option compared with other , more invasive therapies for treatment of leg pain on walking ( intermittent claudication ( IC ) ) .
This is the fourth up date of a review first published in 1998 .
OBJECTIVES Our goal was to determine whether an exercise programme was effective in alleviating symptoms and increasing walking treadmill distances and walking times in people with intermittent claudication .
Secondary objectives were to determine whether exercise was effective in preventing deterioration of underlying disease , reducing cardiovascular events , and improving quality of life .
Intermittent Claudication—Surgical Reconstruction or Physical Training?: A Prospective Randomized Trial of Treatment Efficiency
This study reports the initial evaluation of treatment efficiency in 75 patients with intermittent claudication who were r and omized to three treatment groups : 1 ) reconstructive surgery , 2 ) recon structive surgery with subsequent physical training , and 3 ) physical training alone . Before treatment , there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in age , sex , smoking habits , symptom duration of claudication , ankle-arm blood pressure quotient ( ankle-index ) , maximal plethysmographic calf blood flow , symptom-free and maximal walking distance , the history of other atherosclerotic manifestations or in the medical treatment . The walking performance was improved in all three groups at follow-up 13 ± 0.5 months after r and omization . Surgery was most effective , but the addition of training to surgery improved the symptom-free walking distance even further . In pooled observations of the three groups , age , symptom duration , and a history of myocardial ischemic disease correlated negatively with walking performance after treatment . In the operated group , the duration of claudication and a history of myocardial ischemic disease correlated negatively with the walking performance . This was not the case when patients were censored if limited by other symptoms than intermittent claudication after treatment . In the trained group , the duration of claudication correlated negatively to symptom-free and maximal walking distance . Ankle-index and maximal plethysmographic calf blood flow after treatment and the change of these variables with treatment correlated positively with both symptom-free and maximal walking distance when results were pooled for all patients . Although this mainly was a consequence of the improved blood flow after surgery , the change of maximal plethysmographic calf blood flow also correlated with symptom-free but not with maximal walking distance in the trained group . The results demonstrate that , compared with physical training alone , operation alone or in combination with subsequent training are superior treatment modalities in patients with intermittent claudication
Data showed improvements secondary to exercise in ' physical function ' and ' general health ' .
The other domains - ' role physical ' , ' bodily pain ' , ' vitality ' , ' social ' , ' role emotional ' , and ' mental health ' - did not show improvement at six months .
Although results showed significant heterogeneity between trials , population s and outcomes were comparable overall , with findings relevant to the claudicant population .
High- quality evidence shows that exercise programmes provided important benefit compared with placebo or usual care in improving both pain-free and maximum walking distance in people with leg pain from IC who were considered to be fit for exercise intervention .
Exercise did not improve ABI , and we found no evidence of an effect of exercise on amputation or mortality .
Exercise may improve quality of life when compared with placebo or usual care .
BACKGROUND Exercise programmes are a relatively inexpensive , low-risk option compared with other , more invasive therapies for treatment of leg pain on walking ( intermittent claudication ( IC ) ) .
This is the fourth up date of a review first published in 1998 .
OBJECTIVES Our goal was to determine whether an exercise programme was effective in alleviating symptoms and increasing walking treadmill distances and walking times in people with intermittent claudication .
Secondary objectives were to determine whether exercise was effective in preventing deterioration of underlying disease , reducing cardiovascular events , and improving quality of life .