Timing of Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Readmitted Patients with Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Timing of Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Readmitted Patients with Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial. COPD. 2020 Dec 07;:1-13 Authors: Güell-Rous MR, Morante-Vélez F, Flotats-Farré G, Paz-Del Río LD, Closa-Rusinés C, Ouchi-Vernet D, Segura-Medina M, Bolíbar-Ribas I Abstract Early pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), started during hospitalization or within the first month after discharge, has been shown to reduce exacerbations and improve health-related-quality of life (HRQoL) and exercise capacity. However, no randomized clinical trials (RCT) have compared the efficacy of PR started during hospitalization (DHPR) to PR initiated one month post-hospitalization (PHPR). We conducted an RCT to compare DHPR to PHPR in severe patients with COPD readmitted for exacerbations in a tertiary hospital setting. Patients were randomized to receive three months of DHPR or PHPR. Outcomes were assessed at completion of the PR programme and at months 3 and 9. A total of 53 patients (26 DHPR and 27 PHPR) were included. There were no between-group differences in the number of exacerbations (mean, 3.62 vs. 3.04 in the DHPR and PHPR groups, respectively; p = 0.403). Dyspnea in activities of daily living, exercise capacity, and all HRQoL parameters improved in the PHPR group. In the DHPR group, improvement was observed only for some HRQoL parameters. All gains in both groups were lost during follow-up. More adverse e...
Source: COPD: Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - Category: Respiratory Medicine Tags: COPD Source Type: research