About the effect of pulmonary rehabilitation on lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Detecting an improvement of lung function in a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) following pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) may appear unexpected, but actually recent studies showed that is not so rare. In fact, in a prospective study comparing a group of 190 COPD patients undergoing PR to a group of 67 patients treated only with drugs a mean improvement of FEV1 from 1240 mL to 1252.4 mL was found in the former, while the values changed from 1367 mL to 1150 mL in the latter (p < 0.001). Such improvement was detected also in a study in patients with very severe COPD, as assessed by a FEV1 increasing from 970 mL at baseline to 1080 mL after a 3-week PR inpatient program (p < 0.001). These observations suggest that improvement of lung function in COPD patients undergoing PR should be included among the expected outcomes and routinely assessed as an index of clinical success during the treatment.