Pulmonary Rehabilitation at the Time of the COPD Exacerbation

• Published in: Clinics in chest medicine Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 391 - 398
• Main Authors: Goldstein, Roger, MB ChB, FRCP, Brooks, Dina, PhD, PT
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-06-2014
• Subjects: Acute exacerbation; COPD; Exercise; Humans; Patient Readmission; Physical therapy; Physical Therapy Modalities; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - physiopathology; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - psychology; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - rehabilitation; Pulmonary rehabilitation; Pulmonary/Respiratory; Quality of Life; Exercise; Acute exacerbation; Pulmonary rehabilitation; Physical therapy; COPD
• ISSN: 0272-5231; 1557-8216
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ccm.2014.02.005

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is associated with improvements in exercise capacity, health related quality of life, psychological symptoms and response to utilization. Acute exacerbations threaten these improvements. An awareness of the clinical sequelae of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease enables approaches, such as early post exacerbation rehabilitation to mitigate its negative effects.