Abstract :
Background: Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is
beneficial for patients with COPD, with improvement
in exercise capacity and health-related quality of life.
Despite these overall benefits, the responses to PR
vary significantly among different individuals. It is not
clear if PR is beneficial for patients with COPD and
normal exercise capacity. Although it is believed that
longer pulmonary rehabilitation programs can provide
better results, most of the evidence comes from shortterm
programs.
Objective: The objective of this analysis was to
determine the effectiveness of respiratory services
provided in the hospital or community by respiratory
therapists (RTs) in reducing health care utilization and
improving patient outcomes. The aim was to evaluate
the outcomes of a comprehensive pulmonary
rehabilitation (PR) in chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease.
Methodology: All 65 Pakistani patients who met the
inclusion criteria with ages between 40 to 65 years,
including both male and female, with mild to severe
COPD were enrolled in the study on the basis of
convenient sampling. Informed consent was taken
from each patient starting about the study and their
rights to withdraw from study. A demographics detail
(name, age, sex) was noted along with the necessary
medical history. A questionnaire was made to see the
effects of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with
COPD. All necessary tests were performed to evaluate
the patient betterment completely.
Results: The mean FEV1 in the subjects was 1.29 ±
0.47 L/min, 64.8 ± 23.0% of predicted. Clinically
there is a little effect on CXR pattern, FEV1 and
FEV1/FVC after pulmonary rehabilitation. But overall
quality of life improved after pulmonary rehabilitation.
Mainly improvement occurs in peak expiratory flow
rate, BORG dyspnea scale, 6 mint walk test distance
(meters) and Oxygen saturation after rehabilitation.
Conclusion: These results showed
that patients with COPD had benefited from a
comprehensive PR program in an out-patient setting
regardless of disease severity. Exercise training can
result in significant improvement in healthrelated
quality of life, exercise capacity, respiratory
muscle strength, and exertional dyspnea in subjects
with COPD and normal exercise capacity.
Keyword :
COPD, pulmonary rehabilitation, pulmonary function test