Challenges in pulmonary rehabilitation: COVID-19 and beyond

Abstract

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a comprehensive multidisciplinary intervention requiring a team involv- ing an expert chest physician, an exercise training specialist, a nutritional expert, a psycholo- gist, a social worker, and an occupational therapist, who together aim at improving respiratory functional capacity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation in a large number of trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses in pre-COVID-19 conditions, and the impact of pulmonary rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic was estimated based on results of abundant available studies. As many as 34 studies were selected to assess the global results of pulmonary rehabilitation in COPD patients before the pandemic, and 40 studies were selected from the literature concerning pulmonary rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic.A large number of systematic reviews and meta-analyses reported on the efficacy of rehabilitation in COPD patients, based on the improve- ment in inspiratory muscle strength, exercise capacity, dyspnea, and quality of life. The response to rehabilitation in patients with COVID-19 is also satisfactory. The effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation in COPD patients shows an evolving need for health care professionals to design an individually tailored pulmonary rehabilitation program for patients with COVID-19 to alleviate the chronic symptoms and reduce complications.