Department of Cardiovascular Rehabilitation @ Ospedale San Raffaele
The Cardiovascular Rehabilitation (CR) Unit offers to patients with cardiovascular conditions dedicated programs to obtain a faster and more complete recovery after the acute phases of the disease. CR programs are aimed at improving the global functional capacity, the cardio-respiratory fitness and the psychological and nutritional balance of the patients, allowing the best return possible to work, social and family activities after the hospitalization.
CR is also a central place of cardiovascular prevention through optimization of the treatment, management of the risk of disease progression and education about the specific cardiac conditions and lifestyle changes. Personalized programs are managed by a specialized multidisciplinary team: cardiologists and nurses with experience in the cardiovascular and general issues of the cardiac patients in the subacute phase, physiotherapists dedicated to cardiovascular and respiratory training, psychologists and nutritionists.
The availability of the full hospital diagnostic facilities and the continuous interactions with cardiac and vascular surgeons, invasive cardiologists, arrhythmologists, infectious disease experts, neurologists, nephrologists, pneumologists, and endocrinologists offer the best management of all comorbidities and potential complications.
In the out-patient CR clinic visits are performed after the discharge for a comprehensive long-term follow-up to maintain and enhance the results obtained during the in-patient programs ad to assess potential further medical needs. Out-patient visits are also aimed at assessing patients who might have indication to hospital admission for more intensive treatment and in-patient CR programs.
Our excellence in numbers
Conditions we take care of at this Department
The provided CR programs are open to patients with all the main cardiovascular diseases presentations, particularly after the acute and decompensated phases. Main Conditions Treated:
- CR after cardiac surgery (valvular surgery and/or coronary artery bypass grafting) or before heart surgery (to optimize pre-operative conditions, the so called pre-habilitation)
- CR after percutaneous interventions (valvular or coronary) or complex electrophysiological procedures
- CR after cardiac acute events (acute coronary syndromes and myocardial infarction, acute heart failure/cardiogenic shock...)
Notable advanced technological equipment
- Differentiated equipment to tailor exercise training according to individual conditions
- Systems for post-operative respiratory training
- Dedicated echocardiographic equipment
- 24/7 12-lead ECG wireless monitoring, for detecting silent arrhythmias and/or ischemia and assessing the progressive evolution of baseline and exercise heart rate trends and responses
- Cardiopulmonary testing
Meet our team
Head physician
Domenico Cianflone
Featured physicians
The San Raffaele Research Hospital is a highly specialized multi-disciplinary medical center of world importance, which embodies the integrity of the treatment, clinical research and teaching activities. San Raffaele provides treatment in all existing medical fields, which allows this center to take care of the most complex patient cases. The Hospital is recognized as IRCCS (Scientific Institute for Research and Healthcare) for its research in molecular medicine and innovative treatments application, such as the gene therapy.
The hospital is a multi-specialty center with more than 50 clinical specialties available and with over 1600 beds; it is accredited by the Italian National Health System to provide care to both public and private, Italian and international patients. In 2018 the San Raffaele Hospital performed over 51,000 patient admissions, 72,000 emergency room encounters and delivered over 1.5 million outpatient medical services. It is widely regarded as the most celebrated hospital in the country and among the most reputable medical centers in Europe. San Raffaele’s wards and operating theatres are equipped with the most advanced machines, such as PET, PET/CT, Gamma Knife, Cyber Knife, Rapid Arc, Tomotherapy. San Raffaele’s Radiotherapy Unit was the first place in Europe to install Tomotherapy in 2004. Nowadays this Unit confirms to be one of the most experienced worldwide; it has developed numerous protocols for cancer treatment of the prostate, breast, central nervous system, brain, liver, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and others. The Oncological Board of the Hospital consisting of diagnosticians, clinical oncologists, immunologists, surgeons and radiotherapists, hold weekly meetings to discuss oncological patients’ pathways in a multidisciplinary manner.
Beside its Cancer Center, San Raffaele is well-known for its medical know-how in cardiology and cardiac surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, gastroenterology and gastrointestinal tract surgery, liver surgery, pancreas surgery, transplant medicine, gynecology and obstetrics, urology, dermatology, ophthalmology, immunology, rheumatology and pediatrics.
San Raffaele is a pioneer in the field of gene medicine and treatment of rare immunologic and genetic diseases. San Raffaele Scientific Institute is where the first in the world gene therapy with stem cells was created, named Strimvelis, for patients affected by ADA-SCID syndrome.
The Research at the San Raffaele Hospital focuses on integrating basic, translational and clinical research to provide the most advanced care to the patients. It counts on over 1,500 scientists, working in state-of-the-art facilities covering a surface of 130,000 square meters, and have produced over 1,446 scientific publications in 2018. Research at San Raffaele aims at understanding the mechanisms underlying a variety of important human diseases and at identifying new targets and new therapeutic strategies to treat them.
The San Raffaele Hospital hosts the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, a fully private university with a complete Medical School (including specialty courses and residencies), Nursing School, a Psychology graduate and post-graduate programs, and Allied Health Professions School. The mission of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University is to answer the question "Quid est homo?" in the belief that the human being is a biological, psychological and spiritual unicum. Since 2010 the San Raffaele Hospital also hosts the International MD Program, the only graduate program accredited to license Medical Doctors in both Europe and North America.
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