Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of early rehabilitation exercise in improving cardiopulmonary function after pacemaker implantation in elderly patients. Methods A total of 50 elderly patients who underwent pacemaker implantation in our hospital from January 2019 to June 2023 were enrolled and randomly divided into control group (conventional rehabilitation nursing) and observation group (early rehabilitation exercise), and the intervention effect was compared between the two groups. Results There was no significant difference in the time of operation between the two groups, and compared with the control group, the observation group had significantly shorter time to ambulation and length of hospital stay (P <0.05). The observation group had significantly higher scores of shoulder joint mobility and function at 1 and 12 weeks after surgery than the control group (P <0.05). There were no significant differences in forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity (FEV₁/FVC) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) between the two groups before surgery (P >0.05), and the observation group had significantly higher FEV₁/FVC and LVEF than the control group at 1 week and 1 month after surgery (P <0.05). Compared with the control group, the observation group had significantly higher quality of life scores (general cognition, psychological function, physical function, and social functioning) (P <0.05). The observation group had a significantly lower incidence rate of complications than the control group (8.00% vs 32.00%, P <0.05). The observation group had a significantly higher degree of satisfaction than the control group (96.00% vs 72.00%, P <0.05). Conclusion Early rehabilitation exercise has a marked effect in rehabilitation nursing after pacemaker implantation in elderly patients and can improve their shoulder joint function and cardiopulmonary function, facilitate the improvement in quality of life, reduce the incidence rate of complications, and relieve the intense nurse-patient relationship.

Key words: Pacemaker implantation, Early rehabilitation exercise, Cardiopulmonary function