Exercise for intermittent claudication (Cochrane update and RCT)
Clinical bottom line
Limited evidence suggests exercise can be helpful, with support from more recent large RCT. Benefits not overwhelming, but a useful proportion of patients might benefit.
Reference
GC Leng et al. Exercise for intermittent claudication. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2000, issue 2
Study
- Date review completed: not clear
- Number of trials included: Fifteen randomised trials, though five subsequently excluded
- Number of patients: 250
- Control group: various
- Main outcomes: various
Results
Maximum walking time was 6.5 minutes better with exercise than usual care or placebo, in three trials with 53 patients.
Comment
Limited evidence suggests exercise can be helpful. A large RCT in Australia [1] recruited 882 men to a randomised comparison of usual care and a regime of stopping smoking and keep walking in a community based intervention. Over 12 months, the exercise and smoking intervention produced more men who walked, and who walked more, with statistically significant and clinically useful numbers of men who had pain free walking, and fewer able to walk only short distances.
- B Fowler et al. Improving maximum walking distance in early peripheral arterial disease: randomised controlled trial. Australian Journal of Physiotherapy 2002 48:269-275.