SET was still beneficial for maximal and pain-free walking distances at 12 months , but it did not have a significant effect on quality of life parameters .
AUTHORS ' CONCLUSIONS SET has statistically significant benefit on treadmill walking distance ( maximal and pain-free ) compared with non-supervised regimens .
BACKGROUND Although supervised exercise therapy is considered to be of significant benefit for people with leg pain ( peripheral arterial disease ( PAD ) ) , implementing supervised exercise programs ( SETs ) in daily practice has limitations .
This is an up date of a review first published in 2006 .
OBJECTIVES The main objective of this review was to provide an accurate overview of studies evaluating the effects of supervised versus non-supervised exercise therapy on maximal walking time or distance on a treadmill for people with intermittent claudication .
Exercise for intermittent claudication
Intermittent claudication is a common condition leading to significant functional impairment and enhanced risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality . However , despite the functional impairment caused by intermittent claudication , the natural history in the affected limb is fairly benign . Only about 25 % of patients show symptomatic deterioration and only 2 % eventually lose the affected limb.1 This epidemiological evidence has led most clinicians in both primary and hospital care to manage intermittent claudication conservatively , addressing cardiovascular risk factors2 and giving advice on exercise . This may well be appropriate but merely giving advice about exercise is unlikley to be the most effective treatment . Exercise as a treatment for intermittent claudication is not new , with improvements in walking described from as early as 1898 . A recent Cochrane review of 10 r and omised trials of exercise therapy estimated an overall improvement in walking distance of about 150%.3 The exercise component in all but one of these
SET was still beneficial for maximal and pain-free walking distances at 12 months , but it did not have a significant effect on quality of life parameters .
AUTHORS ' CONCLUSIONS SET has statistically significant benefit on treadmill walking distance ( maximal and pain-free ) compared with non-supervised regimens .
BACKGROUND Although supervised exercise therapy is considered to be of significant benefit for people with leg pain ( peripheral arterial disease ( PAD ) ) , implementing supervised exercise programs ( SETs ) in daily practice has limitations .
This is an up date of a review first published in 2006 .
OBJECTIVES The main objective of this review was to provide an accurate overview of studies evaluating the effects of supervised versus non-supervised exercise therapy on maximal walking time or distance on a treadmill for people with intermittent claudication .