Inspiratory Muscle Training in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) as Part of a Respiratory Rehabilitation Program Implementation of Mechanical Devices: A Systematic Review

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 19; no. 9; p. 5564
• Main Authors: Vázquez-Gandullo, Eva, Hidalgo-Molina, Antonio, Montoro-Ballesteros, Francisca, Morales-González, María, Muñoz-Ramírez, Isabel, Arnedillo-Muñoz, Aurelio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 03-05-2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Breathing Exercises; Cardiovascular diseases; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Coronary artery disease; Dyspnea; Exercise; Exercise Tolerance - physiology; Fatigue; Health services; Heart diseases; Humans; Lung diseases; Mechanical devices; Mortality; Muscles; Obstructive lung disease; Patients; Physical fitness; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive; Quality of Life; Rehabilitation; Respiration; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory Muscles - physiology; Review; Search engines; Search strategies; Signs and symptoms; Systematic review; Training devices; inspiratory muscle training; inspiratory restriction device; quality of life; respiratory rehabilitation; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19095564

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a complex and heterogeneous disease, with pulmonary and extrapulmonary manifestations, which leads to the need to personalize the assessment and treatment of these patients. The latest updates of national and international guidelines for the management of COPD reveal the importance of respiratory rehabilitation (RR) and its role in improving symptoms, quality of life, and psychosocial sphere of patients. Within RR, the inspiratory muscle training (IMT) has received special interest, showing benefits in maximum inspiratory pressure, perception of well-being, and health status in patients with chronic heart disease, respiratory diseases, and dyspnea during exercise. The aim of this review is to assess the efficacy of IMT in COPD patients through the use of inspiratory muscle training devices, compared with respiratory rehabilitation programs without inspiratory muscle training. In the last years, many mechanical devices focused on inspiratory muscle training have been developed, some of them, such as the AirOFit PRO™, PowerBreath
, or FeelBreathe
, have shown clear benefits. The active search for candidate patients to undergo the RR program with inspiratory muscle training using this type of device in COPD patients represents an advance in the treatment of this disease, with direct benefits on the quality of life of the patients. In this article, we review the available evidence on IMT in these patients and describe the different devices used for it.